JPMORGAN LOSES FAVOR  | The board members of JPMorgan Chase had a pressing question earlier this week when they met to approve $1 billion in fines: are we done yet? The answer, in short, was no, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess report in DealBook. The fines, announced on Thursday, resolve investigations into the bank’s big trading loss in London as well as an inquiry into its credit card products.
But more problems loom for the bank. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission wanted a $100 million fine as well as an acknowledgment that JPMorgan’s trading in London manipulated a corner of the derivatives market â€" an accusation that the bank disputes and is fighting tooth and nail, people briefed on the matter said. Though JPMorgan emerged from the financial crisis healthier than its rivals, it is now facing scrutiny from at least seven federal agencies, several state regulators and two foreign nations, DealBook reports.
Senior JPMorgan executives who seemed to play a role in the bank’s missteps are not being singled out for individual punishment, DealBook’s Peter Eavis writes. And yet, government agencies that settled with the bank went to considerable lengths to explain how they thought senior executives had slipped up. “JPMorgan failed to keep watch over its traders as they overvalued a very complex portfolio to hide massive losses,†George S. Canellos, co-director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of enforcement, said in a statement.
Though JPMorgan made an admission of wrongdoing when settling with the S.E.C., it was unwilling to make such an admission in dealing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That’s because the settlement was carefully structured to limit its potential fallout, Peter J. Henning writes in the White Collar Watch column. An admission in violating the commodities laws “could open the bank up to substantial additional liability.â€
COMPUTER FLAWS GET WRY SMILE FROM HUMANS DISPLACED  | After a technological breakdown froze the Nasdaq stock market for three hours last month, investors across Wall Street wrung their hands. But Thomas H. Shafer allowed himself a bitter laugh. After all, he had forged a career as a stock exchange specialist â€" buying and selling shares to help the market function properly â€" only to have his profession sharply diminished by technology.
Now that technology was proving yet again to be a source of error. With the rise of computer-driven trading, a number of problems have led investors and regulators to demand tighter safeguards. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked the nation’s stock exchanges to introduce “kill switches†and other technological changes. The mishaps have also led longtime former specialists like Mr. Shafer to reflect on the days before machines took over the market.
2 TECH I.P.O.’S SET TO BEGIN TRADING  | Two technology companies priced their initial public offerings Thursday evening, reflecting strong investor demand for a sector that is trying to revive. FireEye, a provider of cybersecurity software, priced its initial public offering on Thursday at $20 a share, beating expectations, DealBook’s Michael J. de la Merced reports. This week, the company raised its price range to $15 to $17 a share. The company also increased the number of shares that it sold in the offering by 8 percent, to 15.18 million. All told, the deal raised $303.6 million, valuing the software maker at $2.3 billion.
Rocket Fuel, an advertising technology company that relies on artificial intelligence, priced its initial public offering at the top of its expected range, raising $116 million, Mr. de la Merced reports. The company sold four million shares at $29 each, valuing the company at $942.5 million.
ON THE AGENDA  | James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is on Bloomberg TV at 7 a.m., discussing the Fed’s surprise move. George John, the chief executive of Rocket Fuel, is on CNBC at 9 a.m. David DeWalt, FireEye’s chief executive, is on CNBC at 10 a.m. The I.P.O.’s of both companies are expected to begin trading today.
INVESTORS STILL PUZZLING OVER FED’S MOVE  | After the Federal Reserve on Wednesday dashed the widespread assumption that it would begin slowing down its bond-buying program, Wall Street is now furiously revising expectations about the role the central bank will play in the economy in the months ahead, Nathaniel Popper reports in DealBook. Many said that in the future, they would pay less attention to public statements and reconsider the barometers they were using to predict Fed decisions.
“From May forward, the body English suggested that they were ready to taper,†said Ken Taubes, the chief investment officer at Pioneer Investments. “Now the moral of the story is, ‘Don’t look at what we’re saying.’â€
New York Times Company to Pay a Dividend of 4 Cents  | The New York Times Company said it would pay a quarterly dividend to its shareholders for the first time in five years.
NEW YORK TIMES
Huge Payday for Chief Executive Who Is Leaving Nokia  | Nokia disclosed that Stephen Elop is expected to collect about 18.8 million euros as he prepares to leave the company in the wake of Microsoft’s takeover of its handset business.
DealBook »
Lessons for H.P. From Its Offspring  | Agilent Technologies was considered the producer of nerdy scientific equipment when it was spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, while H.P. was expanding. But Agilent has outperformed H.P. and is now splitting to create yet more value, Robert Cyran writes in Reuters Breakingviews.
REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS
Activision Blizzard’s Big Stake Buyback Halted by Delaware Court  | A court injunction said the company would have to win an appeal or hold a shareholder vote before it could buy back most of Vivendi’s stake in itself.
DealBook »
Editors of AllThingsD to Leave Dow Jones  | Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, the co-editors of AllThingsD, are parting ways with Dow Jones at the end of the year when their contracts expire. A spokeswoman for Dow Jones said no decision had been made about who would retain the rights to the brand and the archived content.
NEW YORK TIMES
Error by New York Fed Affects Goldman  | The Financial Times reports: “Goldman Sachs suffered a loss when a clerical error by the New York Federal Reserve left the bank without any of the three-month Treasury bills it had ordered at a government debt auction, people familiar with the matter said.â€
FINANCIAL TIMES
Goldman to Expand Program for Small Businesses  | Dina Powell, Goldman Sachs’s head of corporate engagement, said on Thursday that the firm was expanding 10,000 Small Businesses, its program to assist entrepreneurs.
NEW YORK TIMES YOU’RE THE BOSS
Twitter May Add Banks to I.P.O.  | Reuters reports: “Twitter is in talks to add additional banks to its underwriting syndicate for its upcoming initial public offering and in the process of finalizing the fee structure, according to three people familiar with the matter.â€
REUTERS
Money Funds Circle the Wagons on Rules  | “This week the comment period closed on proposed money market rules set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission,†Floyd Norris writes in the High & Low Finance column in The New York Times. “The rules are pitifully weak and inadequate. They could even make the system more vulnerable in a crisis, as the presidents of all 12 Federal Reserve banks pointed out in a letter to the S.E.C.â€
NEW YORK TIMES
Veteran UBS Banker to Depart  | Simon Warshaw, 47, who led the UBS team advising Vodafone, the British telecommunications company, to sell its stake in Verizon Wireless to its longtime partner Verizon Communications is leaving the bank after 27 years.
DealBook »
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Executive Said to Depart  | Reuters reports: “The managing director and complex manager for some of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s most profitable offices in New York has left after more than 20 years at the company, people familiar with the matter said.â€
REUTERS
Univision Said to Be in Talks Over I.P.O. in 2014  | The Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications, which was bought by a group of private equity firms in 2007, “has in recent weeks held discussions with banks about an initial public offering, according to three people familiar with the matter,†Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Big Buyout Firms Explore Lending in Spain  | K.K.R. and Apollo Global Management are looking to get a piece of the lending market in Spain as banks become more cautious, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Hedge Funds Gain Foothold in China  | In the next few months, six hedge funds will each be able to raise $50 million from institutions in China to invest around the world as part of a pilot program in Shanghai.
DealBook »
Goldman Sachs Said to Be Starting Hedge Fund in Asia  | Bloomberg News reports: “Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, set up to allow clients to invest with some of the bank’s top proprietary traders, is raising capital for a new Asian fund, said two people with knowledge of the matter.â€
BLOOMBERG NEWS
I.P.O. in New Zealand Would Be a Record  | The government’s plan to sell 49 percent of Meridian Energy, New Zealand’s biggest electricity producer, would raise $1.6 billion or more.
DealBook »
Empire State Realty Aims to Raise $1 Billion in I.P.O. Â |Â
FINANCIAL TIMES
U.S. Revives Loan Guarantee Program for Clean Energy  | A controversial program â€" which remains under Congressional scrutiny after losing taxpayer money on investments in failed green energy start-ups like Solyndra â€" is now set to devote as much as $8 billion to helping industries like coal and oil make cleaner energy, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Pinterest to Start Showing Ads  |Â
TECHCRUNCH
Hurdles Still High for Fed’s New Front-Runner  | The first hurdle facing Janet L. Yellen if she is chosen by President Obama to lead the Federal Reserve would be to win confirmation from the Senate â€" an obstacle that doomed the previous front-runner for the job, Lawrence H. Summers. The second challenge would be to manage the central bank’s retreat from its unprecedented efforts to stimulate the economy, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Buffett Wants to Keep Bernanke Atop Fed  | Asked about Janet Yellen, President Obama’s expected choice to lead the Federal Reserve, Warren Buffett said that he didn’t know her at all.
DealBook »
Goldman Settles Lawsuit Over eToys I.P.O.  | Goldman is poised to leave behind a long-running lawsuit over the 1999 initial public offering of eToys â€" an online toy retailer whose rise and fall became a symbol of the dotcom boom and bust â€" by paying $7.5 million to eToys creditors.
DealBook »
Prudential Financial Deemed ‘Too Big to Fail’  | Prudential Financial said on Thursday that United States regulators had determined that the company was a systemically important financial institution.
DealBook »
Canada to Set Up New Securities Regulator  | Thwarted by a court ruling blocking it from unilaterally establishing a national securities regulator, the government of Canada joined with two provinces to form a “cooperative†agency on Thursday.
DealBook »
