FT Alphaville " The 6am Cut London Glencore softened terms of its offer for Xstrata, saying it would keep Sir John Bond on as chairman of the mining company as part of the revised offer and retaining the same balanced board structure as proposed in February, with equal numbers of non-executive directors from each company's board. Xstrata, which on Friday said it needed more information to consider Mr Glasenberg's latest plans, declined to comment on Sunday and Qatar Holding, a key shareholder in Xstrata, is awaiting the board's response. (Financial Times) Glencore could publish details of its revised offer as early as today. Reuters Confidence is growing that a German court may approve the ESM in its ruling on Wednesday, and there are fresh signs that pro-EU parties in the Netherlands have surged ahead in national elections. Meanwhile Olli Rehn, Brussels" economics commissioner, said the "strict and effective" conditions described in the Outright Monetary Transactions programme would be much the same as the annual Brussels-led recommendations for national governments" fiscal targets and economic reforms, but with greater detail and timetables for implementation. Financial Times The US Treasury has launched its biggest divestment of bailed-out insurer AIG, making up to $20.7bn of its dwindling stake available for sale. This would halve its stake and probably reduce the US taxpayer to the status of a minority shareholder for the first time since 2008. (Financial Times) (Wall Street Journal) BP is close to a deal to sell some of its Gulf of Mexico offshore oil fields for around $7bn to Plains Exploration & Production, people familiar with the matter said. BP has divested about $26.5bn of a total $38bn worth of assets earmarked for sale to meet costs related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. A deal could be announced as early as this week, although talks could yet fall apart. Wall Street Journal China's exports rose less than less than 3% for a second month while imports had the first non-holiday season decline since 2009. Overseas shipments gained 2.7% in August from a year earlier, while economists surveyed by Bloomberg had a median forecast of 2.9%. Imports fell 2.6%, leaving the country with a trade surplus of $26.7bn. (Bloomberg) The trade data on Monday followed the weekend release of industrial production data which showed continuing weak growth, and rising headline inflation. Japan's GDP grew an annualised 0.7% in the three months through June, less than a preliminary calculation of 1.4% and the 1% median forecast of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Bloomberg EU banks could face a ringfencing of their trading assets under the Liikanen review. The review, due to be completed in a month, plans to propose any bank that exceeded a threshold of trading assets as a proportion of total assets - which could be set as low as 5% - would be obliged to establish a separately capitalised subsidiary to house that activity. Troika inspectors rejected €2bn of Greece's €13.5bn austerity programme, according to Greek officials, although officials on both sides said there would be more talks over the next few weeks before the troika reports on Greece to the European finance ministers" meeting on October 8. (Wall Street Journal) That report will be important in deciding whether Greece's request for an additional two years" to complete its budget cuts will be approved. However Finnish parliament will find it all but impossible to approve such an extension. A third of publicly listed Chinese companies suffered cash outflows in the quarter to the end of June and one in 25 turned cash negative during the first half of the year, according to FT analysis of S&P IQ Data on 1,700 listed companies. The combined effect of the slowdown in exports, a build-up in stocks and tightening local government finances is beginning to affect consumer companies as well as construction, real estate, industrial machinery and chemicals. Soros says Germany should lead (with stimulus and common bonds) or leave the eurozone. What's the "new normal" for China? Will central banks have to get more radical? Jamie Dimon's bonus may be lowered after the Whale scandal. Other senior bankers" bonuses could also be curtailed (Wall Street Journal) Asian markets Nikkei 225 down -27.07 (-0.31%) at 8,845 Topix up +0.38 (+0.05%) at 735.55 Hang Seng up +17.70 (+0.09%) at 19,820 US markets S&P 500 up +5.80 (+0.40%) at 1,438 DJIA up +14.64 (+0.11%) at 13,307 Nasdaq up +0.61 (+0.02%) at 3,136 European markets Eurofirst 300 up +1.96 (+0.18%) at 1,107 FTSE100 up +17.46 (+0.30%) at 5,795 CAC 40 up +9.17 (+0.26%) at 3,519 Dax up +47.17 (+0.66%) at 7,215 Currencies €/$ 1.28 (1.28) $/¥ 78.20 (78.12) £/$ 1.60 (1.60) Commodities ($) Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.26 at 114.51 Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.18 at 96.24 100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,738 Copper (Comex) up +0.95 at 366.55 10-year government bond yields (%) US 1.67 UK 1.69 Germany 1.53 CDS (closing levels) Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -23.38bps at 194.53bp Markit iTraxx Europe -5.81bps at 126bp Markit iTraxx Xover -27.23bps at 508.58bp Markit CDX IG -1.74bps at 93.06bp Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit This entry was posted by Kate Mackenzie on Monday, September 10th, 2012 at 5:40 and is filed under Uncategorised. Tagged with briefings.