Good morning, New York... A "light sheen" at Shell: Uh oh. There's been something of a scramble for Shell in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil major has dispatched aerial monitors and an oil-spill response vessel to investigate a "light sheen" about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. Paul notes shares are down sharply on Thursday. BRICs on track: FT Alphaville presents HSBC's latest Emerging Markets Index quarterly, featuring the views of chief economist Stephen King. He reckons inflationary pressures are under control in both China and the rest of the emerging world. FRNs to the Treasury's rescue?: Joseph wonders if the Treasury might be convinced (by the Fed) to go down the floating rate note issuance option. The IMF's Manmohan Singh and Peter Stella suggest it wouldn't be a bad idea. Prepare for a safe asset dystopia: "In the future there will be rising demand for safe assets, but fewer of them will be available, increasing the price for safety in global markets." So reads the introduction of the latest Global Financial Stability Report. Cardiff chews over its more notable points. The future of securitsation is regulation: Or rather, regulatory efficiencies maketh the securitisation structure. Lisa takes us through some of the "big ideas" being applied to securitisations so as to lower capital requirements at banks. Among them, trade finance securitisations... and counterparty exposure securitisation. Apple sued over ebook pricing: The Department of Justice sued Apple and five of the world's largest book publishers on Wednesday, alleging that they colluded to increase the price of ebooks and cost consumers "tens of millions of dollars." Iran woos oil buyers with easy credit: Iran is trying to skirt US and European sanctions by luring nations to buy its oil on highly advantageous credit terms, say officials in the industry. They estimate that each month of credit amounts to a discount of roughly $1.2 to $1.5 a barrel (FT). 2 backs low-rates policy: Janet Yellen, vice-chair of the US Federal Reserve, said further monetary easing may only be needed if growth is slower than expected but argued that a range of policy rules suggested keeping interest rates close to zero until as late as 2015. Nokia shares plunge on profit warning: Shares in Nokia tumbled as much as 19 per cent after the struggling Finnish handset maker warned that profits in its phone division would be worse than expected in the first and second quarters. The company said tough competition had affected net sales in emerging markets and had also led to gross margin declines in its smart device business, marking another setback for the group which is attempting to muscle in on the lucrative smartphone market (Financial Times). European shares extend gains as bond yields fall: European stock markets hesitantly extended their recovery from the post-Easter crash, as peripheral eurozone bond yields fell once more and encouraged hopes that an Italian debt auction later on Thursday will go well. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of the region's biggest companies added 0.3 per cent in initial trading. Spain's Ibex index gained 0.5 per cent, France's Cac 40 rallied 0.6 per cent, and Germany's Dax led the pack, with a strong 0.7 per cent gain in early trading. Royal Dutch Shell fell 4 per cent to £21 after an oil sheen, spotted near one of its platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, sparked fears of a spill (Financial Times). This entry was posted by Izabella Kaminska on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 10:31 and is filed under Uncategorised.