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Morning Agenda: JPMorgan Swings to Loss

JPMorgan Chase reported a third-quarter net loss on Friday of $380 million, or 17 cents a share, as regulatory and legal woes dragged down the bank’s results. Excluding the one-time costs, JPMorgan’s earnings were $1.42 a share, or $5.8 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion, or $1.21 a share. The bank’s earnings were weighed down by a legal expense of $9.2 billion.

“While we had strong underlying performance across the businesses, unfortunately, the quarter was marred by large legal expense,” Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement. A conference call to discuss the results is being held at 8:30 a.m.

MOMENTARY RELIEF, THEN SKEPTICISM  | Stocks on Thursday were propelled to their biggest gains since January on a Republican proposal to push back the government’s debt ceiling deadline for six weeks. But investors’ relief that a political compromise might avert a default on government debt was soon tempered by the realization that a fiscal deal was not yet at hand, Nathaniel Popper reports in DealBook.

United States stock index futures were slightly lower after the market closed, and the price of oil, which rose earlier in the day, fell modestly in the evening, Mr. Popper reports. Wall Street remains focused on any indications of progress in the talks in Washington. “The political situation has gone from horrible to bad, but we’re still a long way from a constructive resolution,” said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Company.

Though President Obama and House Republicans failed to reach an agreement on Thursday, the two sides kept talking, and the offer from Republicans was seen as an initial step toward ending the budget standoff, Jackie Calmes and Ashley Parker report in The New York Times. “People familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Obama pressed Republicans to reopen the government, and that Republicans raised the possibility that financing could be restored by early next week if terms for broad budget negotiations could be reached.”

The standoff in Washington is causing less hand-wringing in Asia than previous budget struggles, Keith Bradsher reports in The New York Times. Two years ago, in the previous debt ceiling fight, Chinese Internet users poured scorn on their own government for having invested so much of their country’s savings in Treasury securities. But this time, even as the Chinese media has actively covered the standoff and a vice minister of finance expressed concern about it on Monday, the Chinese Internet has not lit up with the same energy, Mr. Bradsher writes.

ON THE AGENDA  | Wells Fargo reports earnings at 8 a.m. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index is released at 9:55 a.m. Peter A. Sands, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, is on Bloomberg TV at 8:30 a.m. Timothy J. Sloan, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, is on Bloomberg TV at 4:05 p.m.

SUIT REVIVES GOLDMAN CONFLICT ISSUE  | At a March 2012 meeting, a group of examiners at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York agreed that Goldman Sachs had inadequate procedures to guard against conflicts of interest, voting to downgrade a confidential rating that could have spurred costly enforcement actions and other regulatory penalties, Susanne Craig and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report in DealBook. But the former examiner who pushed for a downgrade, Carmen M. Segarra, now contends in a lawsuit filed on Thursday that just weeks after the vote â€" which could have been a big blow for Goldman â€" her superiors asked her to change her findings on Goldman and fired her after she refused.

“The lawsuit, along with a review by The New York Times of confidential government documents and internal e-mails, raises questions about the success of Goldman’s efforts to police potential conflicts,” Ms. Craig and Ms. Silver-Greenberg write. “The lawsuit also provides a look into the often-opaque relationship between federal regulators and Wall Street. After the financial crisis, banking regulators faced criticism that they were too cozy with the banks that they were overseeing â€" a familiarity that failed to thwart some of the risky behavior precipitating the housing crisis and ensuing recession.”

Mergers & Acquisitions »

Del Monte Foods Sells Consumer Products Division for $1.68 Billion  |  Del Monte Foods said it planned to rename itself to reflect its focus on pet food brands like Meow Mix and Kibbles ‘n Bits. DealBook »

2 Founders of BlackBerry Weighing a Takeover Offer2 Founders of BlackBerry Weighing a Takeover Offer  |  Mike Lazaridis and Douglas E. Fregin say that they are weighing a bid for 92 percent of the company that they don’t already own. DealBook »

Delaware Court Lifts Injunction on Activision Blizzard’s Deal With VivendiDelaware Court Lifts Injunction on Activision Blizzard’s Deal With Vivendi  |  The deal by Activision Blizzard to buy back most of Vivendi’s stake in the videogame maker for $8.2 billion is now expected to close next week. DealBook »

A New Boss for Hulu  |  Hulu, the Internet video streaming service, “is close to naming Fox executive Mike Hopkins as its chief executive officer, two people with knowledge of the matter said,” Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

Orange Leaf Looks for Deals Ahead of I.P.O.  |  Orange Leaf Holdings, an operator of a frozen yogurt chain, is looking for possible takeovers as it prepares for a potential initial public offering, the chief executive said, according to Bloomberg News. BLOOMBERG NEWS

KIK Custom Products to Buy Unit of Chemtura Corporation  |  KIK Custom Products, a contract manufacturer backed by the private equity firm CI Capital Partners, said it had agreed to acquire the consumer products business of the Chemtura Corporation for $315 million in cash. PRESS RELEASE

INVESTMENT BANKING »

Twitter Message From the Past Roils a Modern-Day Market  |  Oil traders were jolted on Thursday by a Twitter post from the Israeli military that seemed to suggest it had bombed Syrian airports. In fact, the post, part of a series commemorating a conflict, referred to events that happened 40 years earlier. REUTERS

Twitter Determines Bank Fee for I.P.O.  |  “Twitter Inc. is seeking to raise more than $1 billion in an initial public offering and plans to pay bankers a fee of about 3.25 percent, people with knowledge of the matter said,” Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

Mobile Banking Players Are Shaking Up China’s Cozy Oligopoly  |  Alibaba and Tencent are making incursions into the country’s financial services market and savers should be glad, John Foley of Reuters Breakingviews writes. REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS

Filming the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’  |  Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill talk to The Wall Street Journal about the making of their upcoming film based on a memoir by the former brokerage boss Jordan Belfort. WALL STREET JOURNAL

PRIVATE EQUITY »

Despite Lackluster Returns, Pension Adds to Private Equity Bets  |  “In one of the few things Republicans and Democrats can agree on in North Carolina, the state is adding to its lagging bets on private equity and real estate to pump up its $80 billion public-worker pension fund,” Bloomberg News reports. BLOOMBERG NEWS

In Asia, Private Equity Collects Dividends  |  “Private equity firms in Asia Pacific are increasingly paying special dividends to themselves funded by refinancing debt of the businesses they own,” Reuters reports. REUTERS

HEDGE FUNDS »

After Prostitution Arrest, Hedge Fund Investors Flee  |  Investors with Common Sense Investment Management in Portland, Ore., have requested to redeem more than 90 percent of the $3.2 billion that the firm managed when the founder was arrested in August in a prostitution sting, CNBC reports. CNBC

London Hedge Fund Said to Plan New York Office  |  Odey Asset Management, which was founded in 1992 by Crispin Odey, is expanding to New York with a new office, Fortune reports. FORTUNE

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Shares of Royal Mail Soar in Trading Debut  |  The stock of the British postal service Royal Mail rose nearly 40 percent on its first day of trading, “leading to criticism that taxpayers have been deprived of needed revenue,” The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL

After High Demand, Royal Mail Shares Are Priced at High EndAfter High Demand, Royal Mail Shares Are Priced at High End  |  Shares were priced at £3.3, or $5.28. That values the company at £3.3 billion, or $5.28 billion, the biggest privatization since the government sold the railroads in the 1990s. DealBook »

VENTURE CAPITAL »

Alibaba Invests in Amazon Rival  |  The Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group led a $206 million investment in ShopRunner, a rival to Amazon.com, in a deal that values the company at about $600 million, The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

Two Brazilian Brothers to Pay Nearly $5 Million in Insider Trading CaseTwo Brazilian Brothers to Pay Nearly $5 Million in Insider Trading Case  |  The S.E.C. says that Rodrigo and Michel Terpins of Brazil acted on inside information about the H.J. Heinz takeover to turn $90,000 into $1.8 million. DealBook »

Currency Privilege of the Dollar at Risk  |  With the political standoff continuing over whether to raise the debt ceiling, Floyd Norris provides historical context in his High & Low Finance column in The New York Times. NEW YORK TIMES

On Debt Ceiling, Warren and Wall Street Find Common Ground  |  “I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Wall Street C.E.O.’s, but on this one we agree,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, writes on her Web site. “We can’t run out on the bill and cause financial calamity for working families.” ELIZABETH WARREN

SunTrust to Pay $1.2 Billion in Mortgage Settlements  |  SunTrust Banks agreed to pay nearly $1.2 billion to resolve investigations from a number of federal authorities into its mortgage practices. REUTERS

Italian Airline Staves Off Bankruptcy With Help From Post Office  |  “Italy’s government recruited help from the state-owned postal service to inject capital into Alitalia, saving the struggling airline from imminent bankruptcy,” The Wall Street Journal reports. WALL STREET JOURNAL