Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news Mt Tongariro in the central North Island has erupted for the first time since 1897.
The volcano is spewing rocks and ash high into the atmosphere and the wind is spreading it across the Desert Rd towards Napier. Officials have warned residents in the area to stay indoors and have closed roads. Flights may be affect. However, that area of the central North Island is only lightly populated and it's too early to say if any damage or injuries are likely.
Meanwhile, investors were keener on riskier assets overnight on hopes Germany will approve the European Central Bank's plans for bond buying.
A senior official in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition made positive noises overnight, but there remain plenty of hurdles, the largest of which is a grumpy Bundesbank, which blocked the last bond buying programme in March.
US stocks rose 0.2% to 0.5% after Best Buy's founder announced he would buy the company back off the stock market and earnings results were positive. See more here at Reuters.
Eurostoxx rose around 1% on hopes for an easing in the Euro-zone debt crisis and talk from Greece of an agreement that may allow fresh loans to Greece so it doesn't run out of cash on August 20.
All this 'risk on' appetite helped boost the NZ dollar above 82 USc.
Meanwhile, New York authorities have accused Standard Chartered of hiding more than 60,000 transactions worth US$250 billion by the Iranian government between 2001 and 2010. Standard Chartered may lose its license to operate in New York, where it has over US$40 billion of assets.
A Standard Chartered official described the allegation as having the potential to cause 'catastrophic reputational damage' to the bank. Reuters reported the un-named official was then quoted as saying: "You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians."
New York's Superintendent of Financial Services also said Deloitte Touche LLP helped Standard Chartered hide the money laundering.
The latest money laundering allegation follows admissions by HSBC it allowed massive money laundering. HSBC paid a US$1 billion fine.
18 Comments
A Gold Medal to Mt Tongariro for putting NZ back on the world map ......
...... earthquakes are so passe , aren't they , everyone has them these days , even Australia ...
Auckland is probably due another volcano, we could hit the news big time then.
Yes with White island also showing signs of revival there are perhaps hints of something big brewing underneath us.
......there are perhaps hints of something big brewing underneath us.
Time for the beehive to erupt then in Wellington.
Possibly. If markets believe it will boost economic growth and increase inflation
cheers
My Money's on the Fraulein
Germany and Italy near blows over euro
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9457368/Germany-and-…
Merkel is running the 'Fourth Reich': Fury in Germany after Berlusconi newspaper prints picture of Chancellor with hand raised and compares her government to the Nazis
This just sums the current situation, (Max Keiser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPW8zJmKlJI&feature=player_embedded
regards
Standard Chartered and Deloitte Touche 2 more firms not to have dealings with.
No doubt these are just the tipof the iceberg.
In case you are not aware of it: your links to facebook are only useful to those who have a facebook account. The question you need to ask yourself is: how many visitors here do you think have a facebook account?
Those f ing Americans indeed. I don't like big banks or the Iranian regime but how can the US claim moral superiority and enforce sanctions there. Seem to remember a little thing called Iran-Contra with the US selling arms to Iran in violation of its own sanctions, shipping them via Israel and using the money to fund the contra in Nicaragua as well as mining their ports. Or the use of drug money in Laos to fund a secret war. Or supporting their drug running pal Noriega for years and laundering his money in the US until he outlived his pupose. Do as I say not as I do.
If you are talking about doing business outside the USA I agree with you. If you want to do business inside USA I would disagree with you. Know the rules of the jurisdiction you want to do business in. Standard and Chartered were routing the business through NY. Try transiting through Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia with drugs on you and then try and plead ingnorance of their laws. Strangely enough, many do.
David Cashton: geewhiz: do you ever road-test the advertisements you accept? Do you ever examine them closely?
Yesterday Bernard comments about a python swallowing a pig.
Today on your landing home page, you have an ANZ Bank advert proclaiming
"Just another way we're building a bank that fits around you"
I have been using the adblock extension so I don't see the adds. At the start of this month I was confounded by the new interest.co add, so I reported it to adblock and they sorted it with the latest update. I would also suggest subcribing to http://www.fanboy.co.nz/
Adblock works better for firefox, although I choose to use chrome.
Now now you want BH to get thinner?
regards
Lol. By posting late in the day then I think only a handful of regulars are likely to see this and most of those are probably outside the target audience. I don't think we will see Bernard on food stamps just yet, or down the Salvation Army centre for the local example :-)
A way with words, Kunstler,
"When things blow, as you may be sure they will, at least the Europeans will sink amid all that loveliness while the American experience will be more like getting flushed down a toilet."
8><----
"so don't be too surprised if some general in the Pentagon reluctantly decides that there is no choice but to step in and become the government. This would be an awful and momentous thing in our history, but it is exactly what we've asked for with our pornographic politics of lying, grifting, swindling, and racketeering."
http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/08/that-old-martial-spirit.html
regards
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