Half crash in China: David spots that the Shanghai composite has now fallen for the past 7 days in a row and is down some 10 per cent since a high on May 4. That* Target2 presentation: Karl Whelan puts his views on Target2 in a powerpoint presentation. Izzy agrees with him that it's not about stealth financing, but says he's overlooking the problem posed by too much base money being created in Germany. Kill Bob - Volume 1: Paul notes that a scroll through the comments on any post or article relating to the LIBOR-fixing scandal makes the verdict of the Court of Public Opinion pretty clear: "Hang the lot of them." More on the story from the FT. Falcone, the SEC complaints: Get your head round the full docs brought by the SEC against Harbinger Capital and Phil Falcone containing the tax loan allegation, the client redemption restriction allegation, and the MAAX bond short squeeze allegation... A little Spanish bailout divination: David joins Willem Buiter in wondering whether Spain may require, possibly quite soon, another programme, this time with sovereign conditionality and troika participation. A little whiff of German M&A FT Alphaville's usually reliable sources tell Paul Linde of Germany may be leading the bidding for Lincare Holdings, a Clearwater, Florida based specialist in providing oxygen and other respiratory therapy services. European leaders seek to lower Spanish and Italian borrowing costs. Ahead of today's EU summit, senior officials worked behind closed doors to agree short-term measures to help ease borrowing costs faced by Spain and Italy. In spite of public opposition to the plans by Germany, people close to the situation said Berlin was becoming more amenable to quick action and expected a plan to be agreed before the end of the week, the FT reports. News Corp board approves split plan. The proposal to split Rupert Murdoch's $50bn empire in two was agreed to by the company's directors, according to people familiar with the matter. News Corp is expected to announce the separation of its entertainment and publishing arms on Thursday morning ahead of a planned appearance by News Corp's chairman and chief executive on Fox Business Network, one of the group's cable channels, the FT reports. Supreme Court's ruling on healthcare act expected today. The legal fate of the Affordable Care Act is set to be announced within hours, writes ABC News. Madoff brother to plead guilty. Peter Madoff, Bernard's brother, is expected to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy and falsifying business records in a deal with the US government that will have him penalised a nominal $143.1bn. It makes the former chief compliance officer at his brother's investment fund the first family member other than Bernard Madoff to be charged in connection with the ponzi scheme fraud, reports the FT. Congress expected to allow pension windfall. American companies with large pension deficits will be helped by legislation that is expected to be approved by Congress this week. A measure to stabilise the funding of corporate pensions is being used as a way to cover the cost of a two-year bill to fund road construction and a one-year bill to freeze interest rates on student loans, the FT reports. Markets: Weak sentiment as investors focused on a rise in German joblessness and Spanish bond yields rising back to 7 per cent sent shares lower on Thursday morning. The FTSE Eurofirst was down 0.8 per cent. The euro lost 0.5 per cent to fall to $1.2412, with additional pressure from Reuters reports quoting an unidentified German government source, the tone of whose comments suggests Berlin is not minded to offer concessions at the Brussels meeting. The S&P 500 futures pointed to to Wall Street dropping 0.6 per cent at the open. A rebound in Asia - the FTSE Asia Pacific index is up 0.7 per cent - leaves the FTSE All-World down just 0.1 per cent, according to the FT's global markets overview. This entry was posted by Masa Serdarevic on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 10:45 and is filed under Uncategorised.