- U.S. nuclear bomb facility shut after security breach (Reuters)
- EU Commission Welcomes Greek Reform Pledge, Wants Implementation (Reuters) -> less talkee, more tickee
- China Cuts Stock Trading Costs to Lift Confidence (China Daily) as France hikes transactions costs
- Holding Fire—for Now—but Laying Plans (WSJ)
- ECB-Politicians’ Anti-Crisis Bargain Starts to Emerge (Bloomberg)
- Dollar falls back as non-farm payrolls loom (FT)
- Ethics Plan to Raise Consumer Confidence (China Daily)
- Brazil backslides on protecting the Amazon (Reuters) - fair weather progressive idealism?
- Japan Foreign-Bond Debate May Boost BOJ Stimulus Odds (Bloomberg)
- Japan’s Lower House Passes Bill to Let Workers Stay on to 65 (Bloomberg)
- Forecaster Revises Down UK Outlook (FT)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
* A week after promising to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, under pressure from Germany, softened his rhetoric. The central bank would only deploy the full force of its arsenal, he said, after the region's governments begin using their own rescue funds to stabilize the markets.
* Japan Airlines Co Ltd will relist its shares on Sept. 19 in a public share offering that values the company at more than $8 billion, in what would be the world's second-biggest IPO this year after Facebook Inc.
* Apple Inc asked a federal judge to sanction Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and an attorney for releasing disputed evidence to the media, as a squabble in their patent case continued for a third day.
* A JPMorgan Chase & Co executive, Javier Martin-Artajo encouraged the trader known as the "London whale", Bruno Iksil, to boost valuations on some trades, said a person who reviewed communications emerging from the bank's internal probe of recent trading losses.
* General Motors Co posted a 38 percent decline in quarterly profit as a result of losses in Europe and South America, and a decline in North America, where the auto maker's market share slipped.
* BHP Billiton Ltd said it will write down the value of U.S. shale gas and Australian nickel assets by a combined $3.29 billion, prompting Chief Executive Marius Kloppers to decline an annual bonus in the latest sign the global resources boom has lost momentum.
* Professional networking site LinkedIn Corp posted robust quarterly results, with an 89 percent jump in revenue for its second quarter to $228.2 million, though net income declined 38 percent to $2.8 million on rising costs and investments.
* Japan's electronics giants aimed for a fresh start last year, shaking up their management following record losses, but announcements of dismal earnings from stalwarts Sony Corp and Sharp Corp showed the firms still have a long way to go.
* Oracle Corp and German rival SAP AG agreed to damages in a long-running copyright lawsuit, a move Oracle says will pave the way for appeal. SAP has agreed to pay Oracle $306 million in damages for infringing on the database giant's copyrights.
* Knight Capital Group Inc scrambled to shore itself up and reassure panicked customers after disclosing a stunning $440 million loss from a computer-trading glitch.
FT
DRAGHI PREPARES FOR FRESH BOND BUYING
Mario Draghi demanded euro zone governments turn to existing rescue funds before any intervention by the ECB.
ANNAN QUITS AS UN ENVOY TO SYRIA
Kofi Annan quit as the U.N.-Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria blaming politics within the U.N. Security Council.
TRADING GLITCH COSTS KNIGHT $440 MILLION
Knight Capital Group revealed a $440 million pre-tax loss from erroneous trading positions triggered by a software glitch.
SONY AND SHARP HIGHLIGHT SECTOR WOES
A profit warning from Sony and a massive loss forecast from Sharp have highlighted the depth of the problems facing Japan's consumer electronics industry.
HMV CEO QUITS AFTER SIX YEARS
HMV's CEO is quitting after six years as the retailer's chief executive.
CATHOLIC FUND FAILS TO CONVINCE BELIEVERS
JP Morgan is to close a fund that was set up to invest in line with Catholic beliefs.
SIEMENS SETS OUT 3 BLN EUR SHARE REPURCHASE
Siemens has started a share repurchase programme worth up to 3 billion euros ($3.65 billion) to be carried out by the end of this year.
DARLING CONSIDERED FULL RBS NATIONALISATION
Alistair Darling came within a whisker of fully nationalising the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds in January 2009.
BOFA IN SETTLEMENT TALKS WITH FANNIE MAE
Bank of America Corp is in talks with Fannie Mae to resolve a dispute over bad mortgages
NYT
* General Motors Co vowed to accelerate changes at its troubled European division after a loss in the region dragged down the company's profit by 41 percent in the second quarter.
* Apollo Global Management LLC said that its profit tumbled by 84 percent in the second quarter, as its core private equity business grappled with difficult markets.
* The Knight Capital Group Inc announced that it lost $440 million when it sold all the stocks it accidentally bought Wednesday morning because of a computer glitch.
* In July, higher-than-expected sales at low and mid priced stores helped push sales past analysts' estimates. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.3 percent in July at the 20 stores tracked by Thomson Reuters, well above expectations of a 1.5 percent gain.
* Federal prosecutors have charged a Bristol-Myers Squibb executive, Robert Ramnarine, with insider trading, saying he had profited from confidential information about pending deals by the pharmaceutical company.
* Federal regulators said that they were investigating an episode at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington in which three regional jets were allowed to get too close to one another this week
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
* PQ Leader Pauline Marois said she would quickly eliminate tuition hikes, cancel the emergency protest law Bill 78, and call a summit on how to better fund universities if she won the September 4 election.
Report in the business section:
Kinross Gold Corp's investors are bracing for more bad news about a troubled expansion in Mauritania, with concern building after the company turfed its CEO ahead of a long-awaited update on the gold project.
FINANCIAL POST
* Bank of Nova Scotia, National Bank of Canada and Toronto Dominion Bank are considered potential buyers for ING Direct Canada, the online Canadian arm of the Dutch financial institution ING Groep NV, analysts said on Thursday
European Economic Summary
- Swedish PMI Services 54.8. Previous 47.4.
- Spain July Services PMI at 43.7 – higher than expected. Consensus 42.9.
- Italy PMI Services 43.0 – lower than expected. Consensus 43.5. Previous 43.1.
- France PMI Services 50.0 – lower than expected. Consensus 50.2. Previous 50.2.
- German PMI Services 50.3 – higher than expected. Consensus 49.7. Previous 49.7.
- Eurozone PMI Composite 46.5 – higher than expected. Consensus 46.4. Previous 46.4.
- Norway Unemployment Rate 2.7% - higher than expected. Consensus 2.6%. Previous 2.4%.
- Eurozone PMI Services 47.9 – higher than expected. Consensus 47.6. Previous 47.6.
- UK PMI Services 51.0 – lower than expected. Consensus 51.6. Previous 51.3.