NEWS AT A GLANCE
Where Wall Street jobs go
The sweeping job losses at big Wall Street banks, with 100,000 people laid off so far this year, are a boon to smaller financial firms, which now have their choice of top talent. The small firms, less affected by the troubles at the larger banks, are expecting continued layoffs to leave a deeper, cheaper pool of labor. (Reuters) Another beneficiary of the Wall Street job cuts is India’s growing ranks of financial analysts. Wall Street, and London and Hong Kong, are increasingly outsourcing more sophisticated mid-level work to Indian firms, where business is up 20 to 40 percent this year. “There’s a huge amount of grunt work that has been done by $250,000-a-year Wharton MBA’s,” said former analyst Andy Kessler. “It’s natural to outsource it.” (The New York Times)
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UBS posts loss amid private wealth exodus
Swiss bank UBS reported a worse-than-expected $327 million quarterly loss, on $5.1 billion in new U.S. mortgage-related writedowns. The loss was mitigated by a $3.5 billion tax credit. UBS said wealthy clients at its core private banking business withdrew a net $15.9 billion in the quarter, while its global asset management unit had $22.5 billion in outflows. (The New York Times) In a departure from its “one bank” strategy, UBS said it will give broad autonomy to its three divisions—wealth management, asset management, and its beleaguered investment bank. Investors cheered the idea that UBS could split into two banks and sell off its securities unit. “They bought themselves some time,” said Joerg de Vries-Hippen at Allianz Global Investors. (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan reports a $1.5 billion loss since July
JPMorgan Chase said in a regulatory filing that it has lost at least $1.5 billion since July, due to “substantially deteriorated” trading conditions, wider credit spreads, dry liquidity, and the slumping mortgage and credit markets. (Reuters) The No. 2 U.S. bank by market value said it expected the global economy and the U.S. housing market to remain weak into 2009, adding that its capital position is strong. “For someone as big as JPMorgan, I don’t think the number is that material,” said David Verschoor at BNP Paribas SA in Hong Kong. “Once the banks take their losses, that is when the market starts recovering.” (Bloomberg)
GE reaps benefits of keeping NBC
For years, investors have urged General Electric to sell off its NBC Universal unit, but now NBC is paying GE back for hanging on. GE said the Beijing Olympics will generate at least $1.7 billion in revenue from ads and sales of GE industrial products, and could bring in more than $150 million in profit. About $1 billion of that revenue will come from commercials during NBC’s extensive TV and Internet coverage of the games. But thanks to the coverage, GE is also able to sell China security and medical equipement and wind turbines. “China is a closed society, so NBC is essentially opening doors for the other parts of GE,” said analyst Rashid Dahod of Argus Research Corp. (Los Angeles Times)
