On the regulatoryfront, banks finally received confirmation that they had more time todivest themselves of pre-2014 investments in hedge funds. The Federal ReserveBoard officially extended the deadline to July 21, 2017.
U.S. homeowners have apparently benefitedfrom the Brexit vote, according to TheWall Street Journal's Heard on the Street. Following Britain's vote toleave the EU, mortgage rates have fallen sharply, driving refinancing activityeven higher.
Data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed thatinvestors withdrew $1.3billion from financial and banking sector funds during the seven-day period through July 6.
Twenty of the world's big banks have lost about halfa trillion dollars in value since the beginning of the year. That would beequal to about $465 billion, the Journal reports,citing data from FactSet.
Following discussions with several M&Aadvisers, analysts and investors, Bloomberg News is out with a listof potential major deals, which it says "could make sense — if theywere allowed to happen." The news agency says bank mergers (such asJPMorgan acquiring Standard Chartered or Wells Fargo acquiring Credit Suisse) "couldhelp fix the industry."
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth WilliamGalvin is investigatingMorgan Stanley over its alleged loan sales contests, the New York Post has learned.
On ratings,Raymond James analysts downgradedBofA and Wells Fargo to "market perform" from "outperform,"and Umpqua Holdings Corp.to "outperform" from "strong buy," ahead of thesecond-quarter earnings season. In addition, a Goldman Sachs analyst downgradedNorthern Trust Corp. to"neutral" from "buy," while received an upgrade, to "overweight"from "neutral," from Piper Jaffray.
S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on to from stable.
In peoplenews, activist investor Joseph Stilwell called on the management of Lacey,Wash.-based Anchor Bancorpto find a "suitable mergerpartner."
David Farnsworth will begin serving as of Ontario,Calif.-based CVB Financial Corp.on July 18.
In the specialtylender scene, Freddie Maccompleted jointsystem-to-system testing with Common Securitization Solutions as preparationfor using their Common Securitization Platform.
CommunityChoice Financial Inc's indirect units signed an omnibus asset andequity swap agreementwith QC Holdings Inc.and QC Financial Services Inc.
Inother parts of the world
Middle East & Africa:
Europe: 5US banks pledge support for London; curtain falls on AXA in Serbia
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher openingfor the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was down 0.69% to 20,564.17, and theNikkei 225 fell 1.11% to 15,106.98.
In Europe as of midday, the FTSE 100 had fallen 0.06% to6,529.69, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.42% to 829.07.
On the macro front
The employment situation report, the consumer credit reportand the Treasury STRIPS report are due out today.
S&PGlobal Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&PGlobal Inc.
TheDaily Dose is updated as of 7:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require asubscription.