Investing

Bond agencies praise state’s responsible management of taxpayer dollars

October 07, 2009 -- Dover – The country's three major bond-rating agencies have affirmed Delaware's triple-A ratings based, in part, on the state's strong fiscal management practices.

“Delaware is being rewarded for the fiscal discipline exercised during these challenging times,” Gov. Markell said. "Members of the General Assembly and this administration made the tough choices to responsibly solve last year's historic budget challenge and those decisions are paying off now. We will still face significant challenges in the upcoming budget, and it is important we work together in a bipartisan way and exercise the same discipline as we address Delaware's financial future."    » read more »

Funding Status of Typical Corporate Plan Tops 80 Percent

BOSTON, October 6, 2009 — U.S. stocks rose for the seventh consecutive month, helping to increase the funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan by 0.6 percentage points in September, according to monthly statistics published by BNY Mellon Asset Management. The funded status of the typical plan increased to 80.3 percent at the end of September, up from 79.7 percent at the end of August, according to the BNY Mellon statistics.    » read more »

2010 capital budget anticipated to be approximately $11 billion

HOUSTON, Oct. 7, 2009 --- ConocoPhillips [NYSE:COP] today announced an increase in its quarterly dividend along with plans to improve its financial position and increase returns on capital through a combination of enhanced capital discipline and portfolio rationalization.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Oct. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has approved new exchange rules for breaking stock trades that deviate so substantially from current market prices that they are considered “clearly erroneous.” The rules would for the first time provide a consistent standard across stock exchanges and reduce uncertainty about what happens to a trade depending on where it is executed.

“Adopting consistent standards across exchanges for breaking trades will strengthen the resiliency of our markets by reducing the potential for market confusion, especially during periods of high market volatility,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “These changes will promote the orderly and efficient operation of our markets.”    » read more »

Steve Black named Executive Chairman of the Investment Bank; Jes Staley to become CEO of the Investment Bank; Mary Callahan Erdoes Appointed CEO of Asset Management

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM - News) today announced senior leadership changes in its Investment Bank and Asset Management businesses.

Steve Black, co-CEO of the Investment Bank, will become Executive Chairman of the Investment Bank. Jes Staley, currently head of Asset Management, has been named CEO of the Investment Bank, reporting to Steve. Jes will continue to serve on the firm's Operating Committee. Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of the Private Bank, will succeed Jes as the CEO of Asset Management and will join the firm's Operating Committee.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today unanimously proposed a rule amendment that would prohibit the practice of flashing marketable orders.

A flash order enables a person who has not publicly displayed a quote to see orders less than a second before the public is given an opportunity to trade with those orders. Investors who have access only to information displayed as public quotes may be harmed if market participants are able to flash orders and avoid the need to make the order publicly available.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to take several rulemaking actions to bolster oversight of credit ratings agencies by enhancing disclosure and improving the quality of credit ratings.

Credit rating agencies are organizations that rate the creditworthiness of a company or a financial product, such as a debt security or money market instrument. In particular, the Commission voted to adopt or propose measures intended to improve the quality of credit ratings by requiring greater disclosure, fostering competition, helping to address conflicts of interest, shedding light on rating shopping, and promoting accountability.    » read more »

In response to Kaufman’s letter, SEC Chairman says agency will undertake broader review

September 14, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the bankruptcy that sent shock waves down Wall Street and throughout the country, Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) will deliver a speech highlighting the failure to enact comprehensive financial regulatory reform in the 365 days since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

He will also detail the critical need for the nation's financial regulatory agencies to adopt a forward-looking approach to regulation - one that recognizes manipulation and wrongdoing before it metastasizes and leads to systemic failures or seriously undermines market credibility, fairness and investor confidence.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the distribution of more than $35 million in Fair Funds to more than 98,000 investors in Cardinal Health, Inc. who were harmed by a fraudulent revenue and earnings management scheme.

The SEC's enforcement action against Cardinal Health in July 2007 alleged that the company presented a false picture of its operating results to the financial community and the investing public — one that matched its publicly disseminated earnings guidance and analysts' expectations rather than its true economic performance. Cardinal Health settled the SEC's charges and paid $35 million in penalties and disgorgement that were placed into the Fair Fund being distributed.    » read more »

August 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—James M. Davis, 60, the former chief financial officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group (SFG), pleaded guilty today to fraud and obstruction charges related to a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors, Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, and Tim Johnson, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, announced.

Davis was charged in a criminal information, filed on June 18, 2009, with conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to obstruct a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation. The criminal information also seeks forfeiture of up to $1 billion in fraud proceeds.    » read more »

Questions over Imbalances in Early Stages of Recovery

NEW YORK and LONDON, Aug. 19 -- Investor optimism about the global economy has soared to its highest level in nearly six years, with portfolio managers putting their cash back into equity markets, according to the Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for August.

A net 75 percent of survey respondents believe the world economy will strengthen in the coming 12 months, the highest reading since November 2003 and up from 63 percent in July. Confidence about corporate health is at its highest since January 2004. A net 70 percent of the panel respondents expect global corporate profits to rise in the coming year, up from 51 percent last month.    » read more »

Enhance investor confidence

Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted on three measures that are intended to better inform and empower investors to improve corporate governance and help restore investor confidence.

The Commission proposed requiring public companies receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to provide a shareholder vote on executive pay in their proxy solicitations The Commission also voted to propose better disclosure of executive compensation at public companies in their proxy statements, and approved a New York Stock Exchange rule change to prohibit brokers from voting proxies in corporate elections without instructions from their customers.    » read more »

Company cites additional upside value identified since initial offer; also shares details on financing

CHICAGO (July 2, 2009) -- Exelon Corporation (NYSE:EXC) today announced an increase in its offer to acquire all of the outstanding NRG common stock in an all-stock transaction with a fixed exchange ratio of 0.545 of a share of Exelon common stock for each NRG share, a 12.4 percent increase over the initial exchange offer of 0.485. Exelon’s increased offer represents value of over $3 billion to NRG shareholders.    » read more »

New system offers more speed, flexibility and scalability

NEW YORK, July 1, 2009 -- The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a subsidiary of NYSE Euronext (NYX), has reduced the time it takes to execute an order to five milliseconds from 105 milliseconds, with the implementation of the new NYSE Super Display Book system (SDBK) for processing orders. As a result, NYSE customers are experiencing trade executions and reports within five milliseconds, as well as order and cancellation acknowledgments in just two milliseconds.    » read more »

Relative value strategies achieving strong performance as fundamentals return to markets, according to Mellon Capital Management

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2009 — Relative value investment strategies, including those employed by quantitative funds, have produced strong returns since the end of December 2008, when the movements of various asset classes became much more correlated with key fundamental indicators such as corporate earnings and corporate credit spreads, according to an analysis by Mellon Capital Management Corporation, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management.    » read more »