JPMorgan's big loss: Was it hedging or betting?

Gold Tumbles Into Bear Market on Concern Greece May Leave Euro

Unequal pain

Euro twilight zone beckons for Greece

Reuters | 01:11 PM,May 16,2012

By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) - Speculation about an endgame in Greeces protracted crisis has flooded markets with euro exit scenarios this week, but investors reckon theres still every chance that uncertainty will simply drag on for months. Seeking clear-cut outcomes to the euro saga to date has proven fruitless for investors, who have instead been forced to live with the 'muddle through' of European politics.

King Says BOE Is Braced for Euro Risks as Forecasts Cut: Economy

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said officials have prepared for dangers posed by Europe's debt crisis, after the bank lowered growth forecasts and raised predictions for inflation this year.

"Contingency plans have been discussed and have been for a considerable time," King said at a press conference to present the bank's quarterly Inflation Report today in London. "We are navigating through turbulent waters with the risk of a storm heading our way from the continent."

In France voters have given their new president, François Hollande, a mandate to alter the “austere” course set by his ousted predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, and to focus on growth.

J.P. Morgan's woes cont.

Damage control

May 14th 2012, 21:42 by T.E. | NEW YORK

A LARGE, mistaken, trading position take by J.P. Morgan, one of America’s leading banks, already costing it more than $2 billion has become a weapon in major battles in Washington and the financial markets.

In Washington a crowd of politicians has used the incident to argue for more government involvement in banking, even if the ideas floated are muddled or counter-productive. In the financial markets the response has been more focused and carnivorous as other financial firms are trying to get ahead of any move Morgan might make to extricate itself from its trade. The company’s share price, already down more than 9% on May 11th after the initial revelations, fell another 2% on early trading when markets reopened after the weekend on May 14th.

MARK ZUCKERBERG, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has talked for years about the notion of a “social graph” which connects people to their friends and all of the things they are interested in. By encouraging hundreds of millions of people to share their deeds and reveal their innermost thoughts, profane or profound, online, his company has in effect mapped a portion of this graph on its computers.

Greek euro exit prospect splits economists: Reuters Poll

Greece is leaning on the euro zone's exit door but economists polled by Reuters around the world are split over whether it will fall through it.

But they are in little doubt that Greece can still spread economic havoc, in spite of firewalls of money hundreds of billions of euros thick built by Europe's institutions since the sovereign debt crisis started in Athens two years ago.

In spite of gold's tendency to decline in line with the euro, physical demand among major Asian consumers also worked in gold's favor, traders reported, with buyers stepping in to take advantage of its slide below $1,550 an ounce.

In spite of the economic downturn in Italy, Pop Milano posted a 52.1 percent rise in first-quarter net profit to 64.3 million euros ...

Although the broad sentiments remained negative, commodity markets shed their losing streak on news of a rebound in the euro.