Reportedly two construction materials industry groups are looking at Lafarge-Holcim assets valued at up to €7B - press - Ireland's CRH and Mexico's Cemex said to plan a joint bid for the entire portfolio of assets that Lafarge-Holcim are being required to sell as a condition for approval of their planned merger. Germany's HeidelbergCement and Brazil's Votorantim Cimentos SA are also considering a joint bid for the assets. Several private equity groups are also considering bids
Vodafone said to still be interested in purchasing Fastweb in Italy - press
- Swisscom said to reviw the $6.3B sale of Italian broadband firm
Fed's Kocherlakota (dove, FOMC voter): Would be inappropriate to raise interest rates in 2015; expects PCE inflation below 2% until 2018
- Fed has been too tight regarding offsetting the shocks of crisis; has not been accomodative enough- Must make inflation target symmetrical and tie it to a 2 year horizon
- Monetary policy framework creates uncertainty in employment and inflation
Fox News's Gasparino: Herbalife is telling investors that the FTC will not shut down the company, expects some form of disciplinary action - tweet
***Chatter regarding potential FTC action against the company circulated after HLF hired Pamela Jones Harbour as Compliance and Privacy President. Harbour was a former FTC commissioner.
Investor Warren Buffett: Big banks are not as good a business as they were just a few years ago, when they made an "ungodly" amount of money - investor conf
Carlos Slim: Bankers are working on a plan to split up America Movil - TV interview
***Reminder: Mexico telecom reforms are forcing America Movil to reduce its share in the market below 50%, from around 70% today. The company reportedly plans to separate Telcel's towers and renounces rights to acquire Dish Mexico control. Back in late August, America Movil reportedly hired Bank of America to advise in asset sales. AT&T and Softbank were said to be interested in acquring assets.
--> Could see spec. on European Names...After Spin off completed
WHO issues update on Ebola, notes it is inevitable that more cases will occur in Europe, says Europe is well prepared to handle the cases
IMF updates its World Economic Outlook (WEO): Trims 2014 and 2015 globle growth forecasts; says Economic growth may never return to pre-crisis levels
- Cuts 2014 Global GDP growth outlook from 3.4% to 3.3%
- Cuts 2015 Global GDP growth outlook from 4.0% to 3.8%
2014 Growth Outlook
- Raises US 2014 GDP from 1.7% to 2.2%
- Cuts German 2014 GDP growth from 1.9% to 1.4%
- Cuts France 2014 GDP growth from 0.7% to 0.4%
- Maintains UK 2014 GDP growth at 3.2%
- Cuts Japan 2014 GDP growth from 1.6%.to 0.9%
- Maintains China 2014 GDP growth at 7.4% (**Note: China official 7.5% forecast)
- Maintains Russia 2014 GDP 0.2% 2015 Growth Outlook
- Maintains US 2015 GDP at 3.0%
- Cuts German 2015 GDP growth from 1.7% to 1.5%
- Cuts France 2015 GDP growth from 1.4% to 1.0%
- Maintains UK 2015 GDP growth at 2.7%
- Cuts Japan 2015 GDP growth from 1.1%.to 0.8%
- Maintains China 2015 GDP growth at 7.1%
- Cuts Russia 2015 GDP from 1.0% to 0.5%
Comments:
- Economic growth may never return to pre-crisis levels
- warns of eurozone stagnation