U.S. Banks Told To Make Plans For Preventing Collapse
Reuters
U.S. regulators directed five of the country’s biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.
http://jlne.ws/Ry23a8

Budget gap narrows to $69.6 billion in July vs. year ago
Reuters
The monthly U.S. budget deficit shrank to $69.6 billion in July from $129.4 billion in the same month a year ago, reflecting a rise in government receipts and a drop in spending.
http://jlne.ws/P9S0ch

Basel III – Delaying Rules a Bad Idea for U.S. Banks
CME Group
U.S. banking regulators’ decision to extend the comment period on proposed tighter capital rules for U.S. banks only serves to delay much-needed improvements in risk management for the largest financial institutions, industry consultant Mayra Rodriguez Valladares said.
http://jlne.ws/RxWXLh

Goldman Sachs: No Longer Enemy #1
Forbes
What a difference a year makes for Goldman Sachs.
http://jlne.ws/PK7JsZ

Sandler O’Neill Said to Fire About 20 People Amid Market Slump
Bloomberg
Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP, the 24-year-old investment bank that focuses on financial clients, fired about 20 people in units including trading and deal advisory, said people with direct knowledge of the decisions.
http://jlne.ws/P9PHFT

Cold Shower for the Economy: Third Quarter GDP Seen at Just 1.6%
WSJ.com
Everything’s coming up roses these days, if you don’t include, oh, Greek unemployment, or Spanish bond yields, or the drought across the farm belt. But if you’re immersed as deeply in the stock market as we are here at MarketBeat, it’s hard to ignore a certain distinct sentiment that, well, things are just at that proverbial better-than-expected place.
http://jlne.ws/PK5KFd

Debt Crisis: Greece to auction off T-bills to pay down debt
Independent
GREECE is to auction €3.125bn in short-term debt to help pay off a €3.2bn bond repayment due on August 20. The Public Debt Management Agency said the auction for 13-week T-bills would be held on August 14.
http://jlne.ws/Qm7NA0

St. Louis Federal Reserve: Primer on covered bonds, a new type of collateralized debt for U.S. investors
On May 18, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission effectively announced that it would allow the Royal Bank of Canada to register and publicly sell covered bonds in the U.S. market.1 The offering marks the first time covered bonds will be sold to retail investors in the United States. Previously, only “qualified institutional investors” were permitted to purchase covered bonds. Meanwhile, separate bills now in the House of Representatives and Senate seek to establish a legal framework for covered bond issuance by U.S. banks.2 This essay explains covered bonds, the motives for legislating a market for them, and the advantages and disadvantages of covered bonds versus asset-backed securities (ABS).
http://bit.ly/NQW8Iy

CME Group: BRIC Country Update: Slowing Growth in the Face of Internal, External Challenges
Growth in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – is poised to decline a third consecutive year in 2013 as global economic woes curb demand for oil, manufactured goods and other products, according to CME Group economists Samantha Azzarello and Blu Putnam.
http://jlne.ws/QWkacx

Economists in Philly Fed Survey Lower Forecasts
WSJ.com
The outlook for the U.S. economy and labor markets is weaker this quarter than it was three months ago, according to a quarterly survey released Friday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
http://jlne.ws/O8UZyK

Cleartrade Exchange and Tradex to launch Chinese-language platform
Automated Trader
Cleartrade Exchange has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore-based Tradex Systems to begin work on the integration of a Chinese-language Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the CLTX marketplace. This new development will be implemented through an API between CLTX’s platform and Tradex’s MultiTradeX system.
http://jlne.ws/P9JUjH

Years of paltry growth ahead, top forecaster says
MarketWatch
Economist Ellen Zentner is obsessed with finding any tiny advantage when it comes to forecasting the weekly and monthly economic data that move financial markets the most.
http://jlne.ws/MmTH55

Fannie Mae’s $1.4B REMIC Has Five-Year Paper
Globest.com
Fannie Mae has priced its latest multifamily DUS REMIC, a security totaling $1.4 billion, under its Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures program. Like it did last month, Fannie Mae diverged from its usual structure and included two tranches, instead of its typical 10-year tranche—but instead of the seven-year tranche that it offered last time, it offered a five-year tranche.
http://jlne.ws/NsiyR6

Move Over, BRICs. Here Come the MISTs
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
In 2001, Jim O’Neill kicked off a decade-long investment boom with a catchy acronym for the four largest emerging-market economies—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman is now promoting a new foursome of fast-track countries: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, and Turkey.
http://jlne.ws/P4fNqq