Bank of America recorded $9.8 billion in pretax benefits from the sale of China Construction Bank shares and two accounting gains during the quarter. It also took a pretax loss of $2.2 billion related to private equity and “strategic investments.”Total revenue increased about 6 percent to $28.7 billion.Noninterest expense climbed about 4.7 percent to $17.6 billion.Its shares were down 3.3 percent at $5.83 in premarket trading.
* Volume of 10-year, 15-year bonds sold almost same* Govt may review first quarter 2012 borrowing plan
(Adds details, quotes)By Rosemarie FranciscoMANILA, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The Philippines raised a record
110 billion pesos ($2.55 billion) from the sale of retail
Treasury bonds, which could lead to lower state borrowing in
early 2012, depending on the country’s budget deficit, officials
said on Tuesday.Treasury was unlikely to adjust plans to raise 99 billion
pesos from local debt sales this quarter given the schedule has
already been announced, Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola told
Reuters.”We’ll be reviewing the first-quarter borrowing plan,
depending on what is the final budget deficit this year,”
Mendiola said. “The fourth quarter borrowing has been scheduled
and the banks have programmed it in their plans.”National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the bond proceeds would
help the government fill the gap in its financing programme this
year after it had rejected bids at some Treasury auctions.On Tuesday, Manila rejected all bids at auctions of 91-day
and 182-day T-bills. On Oct. 3, it rejected all bids for 91-day,
182-day and 364-day notes.The government also needs to fill a remaining $500 million
foreign debt requirement this year, after market volatility
tripped up its earlier debt sale plans.BOND FUNDManila sold 5.75 percent 2021 bonds and 6.25 percent 2026
retail bonds, with nearly an equal volume going to each issue,
Mendiola said. The issue date of the bonds is Oct. 20.Of the total amount, nearly half was sold to the
government’s bond sinking fund, the same facility which financed
Manila’s foreign bond buyback programme that closed on Friday.
The fund’s purchase was way above its previous retail bond
investments averaging 20 billion pesos per offer.More than a quarter, or 31.5 billion pesos, was sold to
small investors in a six-day offer period, and nearly a fifth,
or 20 billion pesos, were sold via a state auction on Oct. 10.
The rest were placements from state corporations.The final volume surpassed a retail T-bond sale in March
which raised 104 billion pesos.The Southeast Asian country relies heavily on local and
foreign borrowing to fund its budget deficit, which is expected
to narrow to 2.6 percent of GDP this year, or 260 billion pesos
this year, from 3.5 percent in 2010.First Metro Investment Corp , Metropolitan Bank &
Trust Co , BDO Capital, BPI Capital and Landbank of the
Philippines were issue managers of the bonds.Rizal Commercial Banking Corp , Development Bank of
the Philippines, Philippine National Bank , China
Banking Corp and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) were
arrangers.($1 = 43.110 Philippine Pesos)
* NRC to take years to decide on new reactor licensesBy Scott DisavinoNEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Two environmental groups said
on Monday the giant Indian Point nuclear power plant in New
York could be replaced with cleaner, safer energy sources.The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and
Riverkeeper said the region had surplus energy to replace the
2,065-megawatt Indian Point. The groups said the energy could
be tapped by running existing generators at modest additional
cost, with no impact to reliability of the electric supply
until 2020.The group responsible for New York’s power grid disagreed,
saying a shutdown of Indian Point could result in blackouts.Indian Point is in Westchester County along the Hudson
River, about 45 miles north of midtown Manhattan. The plant,
which can power about 2 million homes, supplies about a quarter
of the power used in New York City and Westchester.”We have a wealth of safer energy sources ready to go that
can fully replace the power from Indian Point. When we consider
the human and economic costs of a nuclear crisis in New York,
and the host of benefits from investing in clean energy, the
solution is common sense,” NRDC President Frances Beinecke said
in a release.Entergy , the second biggest nuclear power operator
in the United States and Indian Point’s owner, wants to keep
running the plant for another 20 years and has filed with
federal regulators to renew its two reactors’ operating
licenses before they expire in 2013 and 2015.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he wants Indian
Point shut when its licenses expire, due in part to concerns
for safety in having two nuclear reactors in the New York
metropolitan area, home to about 19 million people.NRC SAYS INDIAN POINT SAFEU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has
determined the two Indian Point reactors are safe to run for
another 20 years.It will likely take years before the NRC commissioners
decide whether to renew the reactors’ licenses. Before the
commissioners decide, the agency’s judicial board must air the
concerns of opponents. Any decisions can also be appealed to
the agency or potentially to federal court.The new report, prepared for the NRDC and Riverkeeper by
economic consulting firm Synapse Energy Economics, found that
even if the Indian Point units both closed by 2015, there would
be no need for new electric capacity until 2020.The report identified several replacement power options
that could be implemented well before 2020, including about
1,500 MW in savings from new energy efficiency, nearly 600 MW
of renewable energy, 8,000 MW from new proposed transmission
lines and more than 1,000 MW from repowering old existing
natural gas plants in New York City.The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has warned
the shutdown of Indian Point would leave the city vulnerable to
blackouts and other reliability problems.”It is clear that alternatives to Indian Point’s power
would result in serious environmental and economic consequences
for New York City and Westchester residents,” Jerry Nappi, a
spokesman for Entergy, told Reuters.New York’s power company, Consolidated Edison , has
said the shutdown of Indian Point would boost the already high
cost of power in the Big Apple.Power prices in New York are already among the highest in
the nation. The average retail price of power in New York is
about 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour versus 9.8 cents for the
national average, according to federal data.The environmental groups estimated the shutdown of Indian
Point would only add about $1 to $5 per month to consumer’s
monthly bills. Other studies however have found that power
costs in New York City and Westchester would rise much more if
Indian Point were shut.
In a large-scale patent war, winning a ban on the sales of a competitor’s products is one of the ways companies try to extract leverage over their adversaries.That’s exactly what Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is pursuing against Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) in a patent war that includes more than 20 cases in 10 countries. Apple is seeking to block the sales of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets around the world, claiming they infringe Apple’s patents.Apple has scored preliminary injunctions against Samsung in Australia and Germany. Now Apple wants a ban of Samsung’s products in the huge U.S. market, and that’s where toddler underpants come in.In a case decided in June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit addressed the standard needed to obtain a preliminary injunction. The case involved Kimberly-Clark Corp’s (KMB.N) allegations that First Quality Baby Products had infringed its patents covering a method for manufacturing and packaging underpants for toddlers.The court found that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Wisconsin abused his discretion when he granted Kimberly-Clark’s request for a preliminary injunction based on the likelihood that First Quality infringed four of its patents.To prevail in a preliminary injunction request, a party typically has to show that it will likely prove infringement and that it can withstand validity challenges by the accused infringer. In vacating the preliminary injunction, the appellate court reasoned that First Quality had “raised substantial questions of validity” with respect to three of Kimberly-Clark’s patents. (The appeals court left in place the preliminary injunction for a fourth patent.)The decision by the Federal Circuit, which often has the last word on important patent questions, could help Samsung fend off Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction in the United States.U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh did not rule on Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction at a court hearing Thursday, but she said that Apple had a problem establishing the validity of its patents, according to a report by Reuters reporter Dan Levine. Under the Federal Circuit’s decision in the diaper case, Apple therefore might have difficulty meeting the standard set for obtaining a preliminary injunction.Samsung’s attorney, Kathleen Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, argued that Samsung only had to show that it had raised strong enough questions about the validity of Apple’s patents to beat back the injunction request.”We think we’ve clearly raised substantial questions,” she said.The hearing did not go all Samsung’s way. Judge Koh found that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets had infringed Apple’s iPad patents.The question now may be whether those patents can withstand the Federal Circuit’s preliminary injunction standard. Call it the diaper test.Apple did not return a call seeking comment.This story first appeared here: link.reuters.com/caw44s
The request comes a day after an article in The New York
Times about how Wall Street firms had established staffing
services in an effort to attract and retain brokerage and
trading business from the hedge funds.Firms might be offering the service only to select hedge
funds, which could violate Massachusetts securities laws, Galvin
was quoted by the Times as saying.Press officers for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Bank of
America and Deutsche Bank declined to comment about the inquiry
to the New York Times.None of the parties could immediately be reached for comment
by Reuters.Hedge funds account for as much as 35 percent of all trading
revenue on Wall Street, according to the research firm Sanford
C. Bernstein & Company.
