Businesses From Their European Rivals

(Reuters) - German businessman Norbert Scheuch was bowled over by his red-carpet treatment on a visit to China late last year and by how fast the country's largest construction firm sealed the deal to buy his company. The head of Sany Heavy Industry, which is controlled by China's richest man, Liang Wengen, personally gave Scheuch a tour of their plant and then had a top manager drive him to the airport and wait with him for his flight home. "Nobody would ever do that in Europe," said Scheuch, CEO of concrete pump maker Putzmeister. "The Chinese made it very clear from the beginning they wanted the company immediately," he added. Barely a month later, Sany's top negotiator Xiang Wenbo was in the offices of law firm Shearman Sterling in Frankfurt at 3 am to sign the deal to buy ...

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking to sell its metal concentrates business due to U.S. regulatory restrictions following its acquisition of RBS Sempra Commodities, and currently faces a deadline of mid-year, industry sources told Reuters. Stamford, Connecticut-based JPMorgan Metal & Concentrate LLC, led by Chief Executive Philip Bacon, is a small part of the bank's expanded commodities division. It is a mid-sized player in the increasingly competitive market for trading concentrate -- ore that has been crushed and milled to remove waste and increase the metal component. The planned sale will raise questions about the future of UK-based Henry Bath, the global metals warehousing firm, because the Federal Reserve has previously barred a commercial bank -- the Royal Bank of Scotland Group -- ...

Wall Street's biggest banks are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets worth billions of dollars. While the battle over proprietary trading and new derivatives regulations has taken place largely in public view since the 2008 financial crisis, the fight by JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to retain or expand their prized physical commodity operations - most acquired in only the past six years - has remained hidden. The debate is nearing an inflection point: Within 18 months, the Fed will likely either allow banks more freedom to invest in the physical commodity world than ever; or force them to sell off the assets that many ...

The Nikkei average held on to recent gains on Wednesday, edging up for the second session and brushing off worse-than-expected earnings from blue chips like Honda Motor Co (7267.T), with some market players saying earnings gloom has already been priced in. Optimism about Japanese equities and hopes for a better-than-expected recovery in the United States pushed the Nikkei to a 4.1 percent gain last month, its best January performance since 1999. "There is a lot of delayed investment. And there were a lot of reasons to delay investing, what with the worries about the third-quarter earnings, the remaining concerns about the European debt negotiation," said Stefan Worrall, director of equity cash sales at Credit Suisse in Tokyo. "But as these uncertainties slowly start to resolve ...

The following interview was first published in The Edge Singapore on May 30, 2011 by Assif Shameen. Richard Duncan, author of the seminal The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures, an international bestseller that predicted the recent global economic crisis with extraordinary accuracy, commands a lot of respect among Asian policymakers. Armed with a Master’s degree in international finance, the affable American economist is a veteran of the region. He first arrived in Hong Kong in 1986 to take a job as an equity analyst and later worked as a financial sector specialist for the World Bank in Washington, DC and as a consultant for the International Monetary Fund in Thailand during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Bangkok-based Duncan is currently chief economist at Blackhorse Asset ...

(Reuters) - NYSE Euronext said a deal to support U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs's new European trading system showed the exchange was keeping pace with other large rivals in looking to diversify their offerings. NYSE Euronext, which runs stock and futures exchanges in the United States and Europe, said Monday it was supplying Goldman's London arm with technology to support Sigma X MTF, the share trading system the U.S. bank plans to launch in the second quarter of next year. "Traditionally we are known for operating global markets, but this is the first time that our trading platform and our infrastructure have been chosen by a major broker dealer," said Stanley Young, chief executive of NYSE Euronext's IT arm NYSE Technologies. Goldman already has an internal trading system, or ...

The Euro managed to erase most of its weekly losses against the Dollar yesterday, as investors expect bank test results to show that the Euro-Zone's condition is stabile. The market waits to hear that the Euro-Zone's debt crisis is not a threat to the region's stability. Will the Euro strengthen following the test results? Economic News USD - Bernanke's Testimony to Weaken the Dollar The Dollar slid against most of the major currencies during yesterday's trading. The Dollar lost about 180 pips against the Euro today as the EUR/USD reached above the 1.2900 level once again. The Dollar also saw a 150 pips drop against the Pound. The Dollar's bearish trend came as a result of Fed's Chairman Bernanke's testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. Bernanke stated that there is ...

After consistently dropping last week, the Dollar's downtrend appears to be halted. The Dollar is currently rising against the Euro, and considering Crude Oil's surprising drop, it seems that the Dollar has the potential to rise further. However, as a week packed with economic publications from the U.S. begins, it seems that the direction of the Dollar will be determined by the results of this data. Economic News USD - Dollar Closes a Bearish Week Due to Poor Data The Dollar dropped against most of the major currencies during last week's trading session. The Dollar saw a 200 pips slide against the Yen, and a similar drop against the Pound. Throughout most of the week, the Dollar fell against the Euro as well. Yet it managed to rebound close to the weekend. The Dollar's bearish trend ...

The Dollar declined slightly against most rivals in today's early trading, as concerns over Dubai's debt repayment problems eased, boosting demand for higher yielding currencies and commodities. Economic News USD - Dollar Declines as Concerns over Dubai Ease The Dollar declined slightly against higher yielding currencies in today's early trading as concerns over credit losses in Dubai eased and better than expected economic data signaled the global economy is on the way to recovery, boosting demand for riskier assets. The Dollar weakened to $1.5013 per EUR from $1.5005 yesterday in New York. The greenback lost 1.9% in November overall. The Dollar was at Y86.45 from Y86.75 yesterday. Investors also appeared hesitant ahead of this week's U.S. and Euro-Zone economic data as well as ...