Spain's new, bigger deficit target is pared back. Eurozone finmins agreed on Friday that Spain could have a 2012 deficit target of 5.3% - lower than the 5.8% which the country's new prime minister Mariono Rajoy unilaterally declared last week, but much higher than the 4.4% that had been agreed earlier. However the 2013 target of 3% must still be met, says Claude Juncker. That could require bruising cost cuts on the scale of Greece's austerity programme. HSBC's retail banking cull continues. Operations in seven Asian countries - Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka - likely to be sold or shut, sources say. US, Europe and Japan seek WTO action on China's rare earths quotas, escalating a trade war over the 17 metals crucial for tech devices. China in January lost a WTO ruling on its quotas on zinc, magnesium and other substances, brought by the US and EU. China may halt renminbi rise: Zhou Xiaochuan, PBoC governor, was cautious on the sensitive issue of whether the renminbi is fairly valued. Asked whether the February trade deficit meant the renminbi was approaching equilibrium, Mr Zhou said that this was a "good thing." MF Global customers get offers for claims Barclays, RBS and Seaport Group are making offers to buy their claims (NYT DealBook, citing people involved with the negotiations) Punch bondholders stand to lose out. Former executive says haircuts will be needed in restructuring of the pub company's £2.5bn net debt. Fed to unveil stress test results on 19 big banks. Only three sleeps until we find out how they'd fare in a deep recession and second housing crisis (Bloomberg). Citi may be among those to get approval for higher dividend (Reuters) Craig Donohue to step down as CME chief. The exchange operator wants to restore confidence after collapse of MF Global. The LTRO was necessary but ill-designed and won't stop sovereign debt crisis from another flare-up, says Paul de Grauwe (FT) Whistleblowers are rational agents, lured by promise of a big cut from money seized (FT) "Greek students fight stray dogs" - well not exactly; but being in tertiary education with 50% youth unemployment and huge budget cuts sounds less than ideal (Bloomberg) Using homeless people as wireless hotspots fails. Who'd have thought? What Joseph Kony is probably thinking about the #kony2012 slacktivists (FT) US closes higher and Asian equities are up, the yen is down, on hopes of Greece receiving its bail-out transfer and Fed meeting. This entry was posted by Kate Mackenzie on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 at 5:22 and is filed under Uncategorised. Tagged with briefings.