The downturn on the stock exchanges continues
(dpa) After the recent recovery on the German stock market, the DAX had to cope with another setback on Wednesday. In early trading, the leading German index lost 2.10 percent to 13,013.62 points, thereby signaling an impending weak start to the stock market on Wall Street. The MDAX for medium-sized stocks fell by 2.25 percent to 26,893.42 points. The leading euro zone index, the Euro Stoxx 50, lost 2.04 percent.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech to the Senate Banking Committee is likely to attract particular attention that day. It follows the US rate hike, the highest since 1994, announced on Wednesday.
The Swiss stock market continued to fall on Wednesday. At 9:17 a.m., the SMI lost 0.86 percent to 10,389.68 points. The SLI, which includes the 30 most important stocks, fell 1.27 percent to 1597.23 and the broad SPI fell 0.99 percent to 13,376.72 points. 29 SLI values give way. Only Nestlé is growing. The SMI has thus also fallen below the most recent correction low of 10,392 points.
UK inflation hits 40-year high
(Reuters) Rising food prices pushed UK CPI inflation to a new 40-year high of 9.1 percent last month. This was announced by the statistics office ONS on Wednesday in London. The last time the inflation rate was higher was in 1982. The statisticians had made similar statements in the previous month when the inflation rate was 9.0 percent.
The value was in line with the consensus of a Reuters poll of economic experts. “Increasing prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages compared to the decline a year ago were the main contributors to the increase,” the ONS said. Consumer prices rose 0.7 percent mom in May.
DekaBank searched in cum-ex deal scandal
The DekaBank building in Frankfurt has been searched by investigators.
(Bloomberg) Offices of DekaBank in Frankfurt were searched on Tuesday as part of Cum-Ex investigations. Bloomberg learned this from informed circles.
A spokesman for DekaBank confirmed that authorities had searched the company in connection with share trading transactions, but declined to comment further.
The Cologne public prosecutor said in an email that they had been executing search warrants against a bank in Frankfurt and against an auditing company in a cum-ex procedure since Tuesday. She didn’t name names. In addition, the private homes of eight suspects would also be searched. About 110 officers are on duty.
The Cologne authority is investigating around 1,500 people from the financial sector due to the Cum-Ex scandal. Most recently, she had also increased the pressure on international banks and, among other things, searched the offices of Barclays Plc and Bank of Americas Merrill Lynch.
Adler Group bond: ECB pulls the rip cord and sells
The main building of the ECB in Frankfurt.
(Bloomberg) Investor concerns about the Adler real estate group are now being underscored by a sale of securities that is a rarity. The European Central Bank has sold a bond from the company that it had bought as part of its corporate bond-buying program.
“The Adler bond in question no longer meets the eligibility criteria of the Eurosystem’s collateral framework and is therefore no longer CSPP-eligible,” central bank spokesman William Lelieveldt told Bloomberg, referring to the ECB’s corporate sector purchase program.
According to Lelieveldt, the decision to sell is in line with the legal framework for the bond purchases. After that, the ECB could “sell stocks if they lose eligibility, but don’t have to.”
Adler’s 2024 bond, which was held by the ECB, is now trading at just 66.4 cents per euro, according to Bloomberg data. When the central bank bought the paper, the bond was trading just below face value. Adler declined to comment on the ECB’s sale of its bonds.
Credit Suisse: Customer Losses in Lescaudron Case Rise to $607M
Credit Suisse recognizes the sum.
(Bloomberg) Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has sued Credit Suisse subsidiary CS Life for fraud by former client advisor Patrice Lescaudron, is said to have lost around $607 million (€575 million) in the case. That’s the amount a court comes to in a new estimate that’s nearly 10 percent higher than the latest figure in a March ruling.
The new amount of damages was announced Tuesday at a hearing chaired by Narinder Hargun, chief justice of the Bermuda Supreme Court. In March, Hargun asked the auditors of both sides to provide a more accurate estimate of Ivanishvili’s losses. At the time, Hargun had estimated the losses at $553 million.
The judge criticized CS Life in March, saying it had “turned a blind eye” to the misconduct of convicted fraudster Patrice Lescaudron. The bank replied that the Frenchman, who was convicted in 2018 and has since died, was a lone wolf who hid his fraudulent activities.
Jonathan Crow, CS’s attorney, said at the beginning of the hearing that he was not contesting Hargun’s verdict and accepted the revised figure of $607 million. Instead, he sought to limit the scope of possible compensation. Ivanishvili’s lawyer Joe Smouha dismissed the bank’s arguments as an abuse of procedure.
Judge Hargun said at the end of the court session that he would later decide on the amount of damage determined by the auditors, as well as on the arguments put forward by the lawyers.