Diamond threatens to drag in BoE: Pressure on Barclays CEO Bob Diamond remains after the bank's chairman, Marcus Agius, resigned on Monday (Reuters). Diamond has sought to alleviate some of the pressure by "threatening to reveal potentially embarrassing details about Barclays" dealings with regulators if he comes under fire at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday," according to people close to Diamond. Microsoft has taken a $6.2bn writedown on its internet business, underscoring the failure of the company's push into the internet advertising market. The charge mainly relates to the $6.3bn acquisition in 2007 of AQuantive, which was then a leader in automated online ad sales and placement. Google acquired DoubleClick the same year and has since led the field. Sixteen banks are attempting to dismiss the Libor class action against them in the US. The group includes Bank of America, Citigroup, UBS, JP Morgan, and Deutsche Bank. In filings made in the New York federal court on Friday and Saturday, the banks" lawyers argue that plaintiffs in the class action failed to make their case that banks acted together to manipulate the dollar Libor rate. The plaintiffs, who include the City of Baltimore and Charles Schwab, allege the banks manipulated the rate to reduce interest payable on Libor-based instruments. Wall Street Journal The ISM survey on the US industrial sector reported a large decline in activity from 53.5 in May to 49.7 in June - its lowest level since the recession ended in mid-2009, "In a shock to economists who were expecting manufacturing growth to slow moderately." Ford warned its Q2 pre-tax operating profits will be "substantially lower" than the previous quarter, due to losses outside North America tripling. The US Justice Department is investigating whether Chesapeake Energy and rival Encana colluded to avoid bidding against each other in Michigan land acquisitions in 2010, according to a source close to the probe. Cotton markets manipulation claim: Mark Allen, former head of cotton at Glencore, has personally sued rival Louis Dreyfus Commodities, claiming Dreyfus and several subsidiaries inflated the price of cotton futures between May and July 2011. Universal Music faces a setback in £1.2bn bid for EMI's record labels. The European Commission believes Universal already charges digital distributors more than its rivals, and disagrees with its assessment of its market share, among other objections, according to people who had viewed a "statement of objections" from the authority. Airbus detailed plans to spend $600m to build jetliners in Alabama in a bid to get more US business and overcome political opposition. The case against Diamond's departure. Could Ireland be the winner from the Eurosummit? What went down at Libor meetings between the banks, the BBA and the BoE. Asian markets Nikkei 225 up +58.88 (+0.65%) at 9,062 Topix up +7.02 (+0.91%) at 776.36 Hang Seng up +302.49 (+1.56%) at 19,744 US markets S&P 500 up +3.35 (+0.25%) at 1,366 DJIA down -8.70 (-0.07%) at 12,871 European markets Eurofirst 300 up +13.93 (+1.36%) at 1,035 FTSE100 up +69.49 (+1.25%) at 5,641 CAC 40 up +43.55 (+1.36%) at 3,240 Dax up +79.80 (+1.24%) at 6,496 Currencies €/$ 1.26 (1.26) $/¥ 79.74 (79.48) £/$ 1.57 (1.57) Commodities ($) Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.78 at 98.12 Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.52 at 84.27 100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,597 Copper (Comex) up +4.60 at 351.10 10-year government bond yields (%) US 1.59 UK 1.70 Germany 1.51 CDS (closing levels) Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -9.32bps at 273.77bp Markit iTraxx Europe -3.99bps at 161.74bp Markit iTraxx Xover -14.13bps at 646.74bp Markit CDX IG -3.13bps at 109.24bp This entry was posted by Kate Mackenzie on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 at 5:40 and is filed under Uncategorised.