Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Supreme Court to Hear Jeffrey Skilling's Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO (WSJ MarketWatch) -- The Supreme Court will consider an appeal from former Enron Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Skilling, according to media reports Tuesday. Skilling, who lost a lower court appeal on all 19 counts in 2006, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in the downfall of the energy trader in 2001. Enron was the largest U.S. bankruptcy at the time.

Chicago Cubs Bankrupt

Tribune declared bankruptcy in December and is now trying to sell the Cubs to the billionaire Ricketts family. The Cubs' bankruptcy filing is intended to make sure that the club's new owners are not liable for claims from creditors of Tribune.
It is the first time that a Major League Baseball club has declared bankruptcy since the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.

Tribune is to sell 95% of it, together with a 25% stake in sports television network Comcast SportsNet Chicago for $823m to the family of Joe Ricketts, founder of the online brokerage TD Ameritrade. The sale was approved last week by the owners of the other 29 Major League Baseball clubs and is expected to be completed by the end of October.

Tribune, which will keep the remaining 5%, has owned the Cubs since 1981, when it bought the franchise for $20.5m from the confectioner Wrigley's, the name of which is still carried by the team's stadium, Wrigley Field.

The Cubs are notorious for not having won baseball's championship, the World Series, for 101 years, making it the longest title drought in US sport.

Dollar Declines to Weakest Level Since Before Lehman Bankruptcy

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar declined to the weakest level against the euro since before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., unwinding gains posted when the plunge in global financial markets spurred demand for safety.

Brazil’s real and Norway’s krone rose on speculation carry- trade investors bought higher-yielding assets at the expense of the greenback. The dollar’s decline helped push gold to a record high and oil above $74 a barrel for the first time since August. The pound fell to a six-month low against the euro on bets the Bank of England’s asset-purchase program will expand.

“Carry is king, and the dollar seems to be the currency choice for carry,” said Warren Hyland, a money manager in London at Schroder Investment Management Ltd., which oversees about $200 billion in assets.

The U.S. currency depreciated 0.4 percent to $1.4825 per euro at 11:01 a.m. in New York, from $1.4773 yesterday, after trading at $1.4876, the weakest level since Aug. 22, 2008. The euro was little changed at 132.81 yen. The dollar decreased 0.2 percent to 89.67 yen, from 89.82.

The dollar’s decline versus the euro accelerated after earlier breaching $1.4850, a level last touched a week after Lehman collapsed on Sept. 15, 2008. The dollar reached an 18- month high of $1.2330 on Oct. 28, 2008, as investors bought Treasury bills to weather the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The dollar lost 17 percent since then.

One central bank bought “a lot of euros” today, said Scott Ainsbury, who helps manage about $9 billion in currencies at FX Concepts Inc. in New York, adding that “the weak dollar trend” will be extended. More