And as Paul Murphy's playmate in the mosh pit that was Markets Live he made it look effortless.
As a solo goer, after Mr. Murphy left, it was a bit more ah, interesting with Mr. Elder trying to keep everyone from getting sued for comments made by the rabble (the "Live" part) and to keep them generally pointed in the same direction, see after the jump for a couple examples.
From FT Alphaville:
Markets not live, Wednesday 8th January 2019
Okay, let’s do this. The author having been smuggled back into the FT office inside a roadie’s flight case, we’re going to have a go at daily stocks commentary again.A couple visits with Bryce, the first one is a look back at a November 2018 session;
Yes, we know it’s not Markets Live. That’s dead. Technological evolution and cost-benefit analysis combined to kill it and there’s no prospect in the short term of resuscitation. What we’ll do in its absence is have a spin around the day’s big movers up here and you, high-quality reader and customer, can help fill in the gaps in the comment box.
Starting with . . .
NMC Health is off 15 per cent at pixel, having been below the trough it hit shortly after December’s Muddy Waters short report. The latest tumble followed its two controlling shareholders launching the sale of a $490m stake to repay margin loans.
Bookrunners said the Abu Dhabi investors Saeed Al Qebaisi and Khalifa Al Muhairi, better known as the Butti family, slotted NMC stock at £12 apiece, a 20 per cent discount to Tuesday’ close.
The pair had owned a 39.4 per cent stake so with 31m shares sold, or 15 per cent of the total, their combined holding appears to have fallen to 24 per cent. On paper, that should be more than enough to close out the 22m shares they had pledged as loan collateral.
Good news? Potentially. Here’s what Morgan Stanley said overnight.
In our conversations with investors, removal of the pledge over NMC’s shares often comes up as perhaps the most important catalyst for a re-rating and — if the [accelerated bookbuild offering] is completed in full — we expect a positive share price reaction tomorrow.Eh . . . turns out not so much.
In addition to the overhang indigestion and the deeply discounted sale price there’s a worry is that, with NMC founder and co-chairman Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty still holding 16 per cent, control of the company remains a bit of fiefdom. Here’s HSBC:
We view this stake sale as positive as it increases the influence of minority shareholders and reduces the likelihood of more related-party transactions, a key concern for investors . . . . [But] it is difficult to know whether the existing shareholders are acting in concert, and what the filters are for transactions with them. The company has taken steps to increase the oversight by independent board members over such transactions; nevertheless we believe that going forward the frequency of related-party transactions needs to be reduced even if they are arm’s length. One way to achieve this is to further reduce the holdings of large strategic shareholders. The current stake sale will help on that front. Other options include a spin-off of the distribution business, giving the strategic shareholders ownership of it in return for reducing their stake in NMC. The distribution business is also a source of many of the related-party transactions.The Buttis also dissolved about $72m of shares in Finablr, the vowel-efficient owner of Travelex currency exchange booths, which is co-chaired by NMC’s Shetty.
Travelex had already been in the news after being floored by the Sodinokibi extortion-as-a-service ransomware on the last day of 2019. (See Computer Weekly for the best explainer). Finablr’s had said on January 2 that “there is no indication that any personal or customer data has been compromised”. This morning it said: “whilst there has been some data encryption, there is no evidence that structured personal customer data has been encrypted, and that there is still no evidence that any data has been exfiltrated”, which is the opposite of a clarification. Finablr’s down 16.5 per cent at pixel....MUCH MORE
FT Alphaville's Markets Live: Was Apple's Decision To Stop Reporting Unit Volume a Tell?
Was Apple's Decision to Stop Reporting Unit Volume Last November A Tell?
Bryce was delayed getting to the Markets Live desk, but unlike a day earlier, not complaining that ML cut into his actual work. He seemed oddly resigned to his task of keeping the Rabble on the Right on a short leash.
Cue dream sequence:
Bryce Elder
What?
Blank canvas
good morning everyone
VV75
morning
AAAA
bonjour !
Sails
Morning
Soundbuy
Morgen..........
The time? Yeah, new policy. From now on we won't be releasing specific data on the exact start time of ML.
GBKrona
Hola
LeonardSG
Morning
We
believe the metric distracts the ROTR from the underlying trends
affecting the quality of FT Alphaville's daily thing with the typing.
AAAA
à la AAPL ...
Soundbuy
We're well-conditioned already
Viking1
Morning and APPL down 7.3 pre market
Viking1
%
AAAA
if aapl do it, why not ML
JimboRock
Alibaba please
rwl
Good morning "randomville" :)
Viking1
How many points on the Dow?
The ROTR should expect the information we are willing to provide, not the information they actually want.
Which, TBH, has always been the policy.
irish hedge fund guy
guten morgen, or perhaps abend
irish hedge fund guy
yes apple tired of focus on Iphones lol
So ............. let's head straight into the world's biggest single-product toy maker.
AAPL:NYSE.....MORE
And then there was the time in August 2019 when the yield curve inverted and every two-bit prognosticator was talking recession, recession. Except for Bryce. He somehow rose above the fray (possibly medicated?) and looked forward to the prospect of eating ones pets for sustenance:
.
Capital Markets: "Having Fun Yet?"
Capital Markets: "Having Fun Yet?"
Ostensibly real-time market commentary but actually a demonstration of how many plates one can keep spinning at the same time while herding cats and trying to avoid defamation lawsuits brought on by random comments of the audience/participants.
There used to be a firm called Bedlam Asset Management.....but I digress.
Sometimes Mr. Elder joins the madness (don't worry, I'll get to the point). Here's an example I was going to title "As Britons Consider Whether They Will Be Forced To Eat Their Pets":
Via the Duchy de Bryce:
I'm slightly behind schedule because I've only got round to reading the Office for Budget Responsibility's Fiscal Risks Report.
Maudise @Soundbuy my cat can feed a family of 5 for a fortnight
(@Soundbuy: to make an accurate forecast we'd need a clearer definition of "our". Because I'm not a big fan of the neighbour's dog.)
Are we having fun yet?
GBKrona Tin hats!!
And welcome to another week of Markets Live, FT Alphaville's thing with the etc.
.............. So. Why?
Blank canvas Good morning everyoneExcel Developer Good morning, good morning. What a lovely morning, a wonderful cool wind blowing through a hitherto sultry stock over-valuation.
I mean, the reasons are obvious. It's trade again. Escalation. Trump Tweeting random policy changes while the toilet. You know.
DogDay Morning all
Plus the FOMC.
But that was all last week. So why this morning?
BornCynic Take your pick of reasons BE - please feel free to invent one.Excel Developer @BE: Iron Ore price collapse?marktime Morning and gulpExcel Developer @BE: Rio grey might illuminate.
Is
it because people thought on Friday, "this is really bad" and then
thought again this morning, "actually, this is really bad"?
To be sure, there's some pretty bleak strategy stuff around.
Here's Morgan Stanley.
Global
central banks, in particular the Fed and ECB, will provide additional
monetary policy support. But these measures, while helpful in containing
downside risks, will not be enough to drive a recovery until trade
policy uncertainty dissipates.
cracklenpop Any grey on gilts?Excel Developer "we are cognizant of the risk of a potential non-linear tightening in financial conditions" , non-linear risks can be a killer.
OurAdvice Morning.BornCynic What is "non-linear tightening" please?JimboRock UK Commercial property down sliding - any bottom in sight?
Yep.
Futures already pricing in four 25bips Fed cuts by December next year,
so the whole "overly hawkish" narrative doesn't quite hold.
11
(@BornCynic: I'm happy to post strategy but don't make me read it.)
HSBC:....
Or:
Today I Learned: Alphaville's Bryce Elder Switches Tasks Quicker If Not Attempting to Loin
Bryce has the toughest job in da 'Ville, switching from whatever he's doing at 10:59 to ad lib commentary on what's up (and down) in the markets, all while attempting to keep the reader's comments on point and not defaming folks, or wandering off in twos and threes to chat amongst themselves about cricket or Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling (yesterday):
or something.
So I thought it noteworthy to link to this:
11:04 amyou read that right, as close to on-time as we are likely to see before the return of Halley's Comet.
He begins:
11:04 am
Sad news .....
The FT.com sing in was unable to happen this morning.
Did you know the FT has a corporate song we sing each morning, to express our "shafu" or company spirit.
"Flap your wings, carry hope on your shoulders, hand-in-hand, Financial Times people will make a salmon pink rainbow across the world"
It's stirring stuff. But, today, sadly, there was a failure when attempting to loin.
Apologies if the mood is rather lower today as a result....MORE
