>>>(PIMCO) Unconstrained Bond Strategy

Bill Gross Discusses PIMCO’s - Unconstrained Bond Strategy
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Bill Gross, PIMCO’s founder and co-CIO, recently assumed new lead portfolio management responsibilities for PIMCO’s Unconstrained Bond Strategy in connection with Chris Dialynas’ upcoming sabbatical. In this interview, Bill provides an Unconstrained Bond Strategy update and offers his perspective on the strategy’s potential benefits for our clients together with the Unconstrained Bond investment philosophy, process and approach. Given the challenges today’s markets present, many investors are looking to more flexible, outcome-oriented strategies such as Unconstrained Bond to complement traditional approaches in an effort to diversify risk and achieve a reasonable return on capital.

(RTR) Europe reaches deal on common mobile phone battery charger

* Law should take effect in around 2017
* Still needs final endorsement
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Mobile phone makers will have to provide a standard battery charger that can fit any device, including smart phones, under a provisional deal on a new EU law reached on Thursday.
Provided the outline agreement gets endorsement from the European Parliament and EU member states, it would be implemented in around 2017, EU officials said.
The draft law on radio equipment lays down harmonised rules for radio equipment, including cell phones and modems.
EU lawmakers also agreed on tougher market supervision and to ensure certain products have to be registered before they can be put on the market, in line with a database system already in existence in the United States.
Once finalised, member states will have two years to transpose the regulation into their national law and manufacturers - including Apple Inc and Samsung - will be given an additional year to comply.
A full session of the European Parliament is expected to sign off the law in March, meaning that a standard battery charger should be available some time in 2017.

>>> US Gapping Down

Gapping Down:

In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: SMTC -18.0% (downgraded at Oppenheimer, B. Riley), RAD -5.7%, KBH -3.3%, APOG -2.5%, DRI -1.2%, MLHR -0.8%

Precious metals stocks getting hit with weakness in underlying metals: GFI -3.8%, SLV -3.1%, AUY -2.7%, AU -2.6%, HMY -2.5%, KGC -2.4%, RGLD -2.3%, NEM -2.0%

Other news: GIG -8.5% announces proposed public offering of common stock (no amount given); CVM -8.5% announces proposed public offering of common stock and warrants (amount not given); VRTX -7.5% Vertex Pharm announces results of Phase 3 Study of Ivacaftor in people with CF who have the R117H Mutation; study did not meet its primary endpoint); CIE -7.2% announces targeted zones of its Aegean #1 exploratory well on Keathley Canyon Block 163 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico did not encounter commercial hydrocarbons and operations are underway to plug and abandon the wellbore); IBN -5.3% (still checking for anything specific); SPCB -4.5% (priced 3 mln ordinary shares at $4.00 per share); FB -4.3% Facebook commences public offering of 70 mln shares of its Class A common stock; total of 27,004,761 shares are being offered by co, and a total of 42,995,239 shares are being offered by certain selling stockholders, including 41.35 mln shares offered by Mark Zuckerberg); WDR -1.6% (Waddell & Reed increases quarterly dividend by 21% to $0.34 per share from $0.28 per share); TSLA -0.7% (Tesla Motors Model S charging system may have started California garage fire, according to reports); MCD -0.3% (McDonald's Japan lowers revenue forecast to JPY 280 bln versus prior guidance of JPY 285 bln); UUUU -0.2% Energy Fuels enters into a Securities Purchase Agreement to sell all of its shares of Bayswater Uranium to Mega Uranium in exchange for 1.75 mln newly issued common shares of Mega)

>>> US Gapping Up

Gapping Up:

In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: SCS 7.0%, AKS 6.8%, STAY 5.7%, CAG 5.1%, PAYX 1.6%, ORCL 0.1%, BGCP 0.0%,

M&A news: BMY +1% (BMY to sell its diabetes business to AstraZeneca (AZN); raises Quarterly div by $0.01 to $0.36 per share); BAYRY +0.1% (Bayer AG plans to acquire Norwegian pharmaceutical co Algeta for NOK 362 per share in cash; implies equity value of NOK 17.6 bln (EUR 2.1 bln)

Other news: ALIM +90% (co and FDA Enter Into Labeling Discussions for ILUVIEN, Agree Advisory Committee No Longer Necessary); PSDV +58% (partnered with ALIM, co and FDA Enter Into Labeling Discussions for ILUVIEN, Agree Advisory Committee No Longer Necessary; CDTI +29% (announced that it has received two significant emission reduction product verifications from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (the "EPA") for use in heavy duty highway truck engines and off-road engines); OXBT +8.5% (provides a business review and update in conjunction with filing of 2Q2014 financials; in 2014, co anticipates enrolling first patient in the Phase 3 trial for levosimendan in cardiac surgery patients at risk for developing LCOS in July 2014); CCIH +8.3% (still checking); HYGS +8.0% (selected as a participating partner in a DOE project award to supply hydrogen fuel cell modules to the Center for Transportation and the Environment); GILT +7.6% (awarded a project valued at $30 mln as part of the Integracion Amazonica Loreto; awarded $99-million project from Colombia's MINTIC); USU +7.3% (was informed that Department of Energy Prepared to Extend American Centrifuge RD&D Program Three Months) STNG +5.0% (still checking); PERI +4.6% (still checking); TRLA +4.0% (S.A.C. Capital discloses 5.2% passive stake in 13G filing); COG +2.7% (announces agreement to provide natural gas to the Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal); BBRY +1.3% (announced two appointments that strengthen the Company's strategy, marketing and operations); HALO +2.1% (still checking); CIEN +1.7% (ollowing favorable mention on Mad Money); TSL +0.3% (Trina Solar has been chosen as the sole supplier of 25 MW of modules to Phase III of the 75 MW Bangchak Solar Energy Project in Thailand)

Analyst comments: RMTI +7.9% (Chardan Capital Markets Initiated Coverage with a Buy and $22 tgt); CHTP +2.5% (initiated with a Mkt Outperform at JMP Securities)

>>> US Early Pre-Market Gappers

Early Pre-Market Gappers

Gapping up: ALIM +62.7%, PSDV +41.4%, HYGS +7.8%, USU +7.1%, SCS +7.0%, AKS +6.8%, STAY +5.7%, TRLA +4.0%, BBRY +2.3%, CAG +2%, PAYX +1.6%, CIEN +1.3%, TSL +0.3%, ORCL +0.1%, BAYRY +0.1%

Gapping down: SMTC -18.0%, GIG -8.5%, CVM -8.5%, RAD -8.0%, VRTX -7.5%, SPCB -4.5%, FB -4.3%, ACN -3.0%, APOG -2.5%, WDR -1.6%, PIR -1.0%, MLHR -0.8%, TSLA -0.7%, MCD -0.3%, UUUU -0.2%, APC -0.2%, OAKS -0.1%, DISH -0.1%

(BFW) French Competition Body Fines Schering-Plough EU15.3m

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BN 12/19 12:26 *FRENCH COMPETITION BODY FINES SCHERING-PLOUGH EU15.3 MLN

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French Competition Body Fines Schering-Plough EU15.3m 2013-12-19 12:36:20.53 GMT

By Steve Rhinds Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The national competition authority said the co. offered ‘unjustified’ discounts to pharmacists in an attempt to limit sales of a generic version of its Subutex treatment. * Parent co. Merck is also fined EU414,000 for collusion and Subutex manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser was fined EU318,000, the competition authority said in a statement on its website * Schering-Plough and Reckitt Benckiser formed a joint plan in 2005 to minimize sales of generic rivals, the authority says

Link to competition authority statement (in French): http://tinyurl.com/pqzvpbc

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For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>} First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Rhinds at +33-1-5365-5072 or srhinds@bloomberg.net

(RTR) Tesla Model S charging system may have started garage fire


Exclusive: Tesla Model S charging system may have started garage fire - California fire dept

(Reuters) - A fire department in Southern California said a garage fire may have been caused by an overheated charging system in a Tesla Model S sedan, in the latest link between the top selling electric car and the potential for fire.
While Tesla Motors Inc maintains that the fire was not related to the car or its charging system, the Orange County Fire Authority said the Tesla-supplied charging system or the connection at the electricity panel on the wall of the garage of a single-family home could have caused the fire.
"The fire occurred as a result of an electrical failure in the charging system for an electric vehicle," said a report by the fire authority, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
The report also emphasizes that the cause of the fire is unclear.
"The most probable cause of this fire is a high resistance connection at the wall socket or the Universal Mobile Connector from the Tesla charging system" which was plugged into a 240-volt wall socket, the report said.
The fire occurred on November 15 in Irvine, California. The possible link between the fire and the Tesla Model S was not reported previously.
The garage fire is not related to three road fires in Model S sedans that occurred in October and November and which caused Tesla's stock to fall sharply last month. The road fires occurred in Washington state, Tennessee and Mexico.
In the U.S. incidents, Model S sedans caught fire after running over road debris. In Mexico, a Model S caught fire after striking a concrete wall.
U.S. regulators are investigating the cause of the U.S. road fires, which caused the high-flying stock of the "green" car maker to fall from a high of $194.50 in late September to under $120 in late November.
On Wednesday, Tesla shares fell 2.9 percent to close at $147.98 on the Nasdaq.
The November residential fire on the campus of the University of California-Irvine caused $25,000 of damage to the garage and its contents, but the Model S sustained only smoke damage, and no one in the house was injured, according to the Orange County Fire Authority's report.
A Tesla representative disagreed on Wednesday with some of the report's findings. "We looked into the incident," said Tesla spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean. "We can say it absolutely was not the car, the battery or the charging electronics."
She added: "The cable was fine on the vehicle side. All the damage was on the wall side.
"A review of the car's logs showed that the battery had been charging normally, and there were no fluctuations in temperature or malfunctions within the battery or the charge electronics," said Jarvis-Shean.
The owner of the Model S, who lives at the Irvine residence, had parked the car in the garage the evening of November 14, plugged the cord from the vehicle into the 240-volt wall socket, and set a timer to begin the flow of electricity to the car's on-board batteries at midnight.
She noticed a fire just before 3 a.m. and called for help. Fire crews put out the blaze quickly.
Some cardboard boxes stacked near the point of connection between the Tesla Model S charging system and the connection to the 240-volt outlet helped the fire spread, the report said. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit and Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; editing by Matthew Lewis)