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from DealZone:

M & A wrap: Owners, insiders jockey ahead of LME sale

Market parties are jockeying ahead of a sale of the London Metal Exchange (LME), a deal that could radically alter the sway that banks and brokers hold over the world's largest metals market.

Meanwhile, London Stock Exchange chief Xavier Rolet says he aims to put last year's failed bid for Canada's TMX Group behind him by forging ahead with plans to diversify.

Eastman Chemical is buying specialty chemical maker Solutia Inc for about $3.38 billion in cash and stock to extend its reach in emerging markets, particularly the Asia-Pacific region.

In a punishing year for hedge funds, the world’s biggest hedge fund is also one of the best performers, DealBook says. Bridgewater Associates, which manages nearly $120 billion, posted returns of 23 percent in 2011 — a year when the average hedge fund portfolio lost 5 percent, it added.

Roche Holding AG's rivals Sanofi SA and Novartis AG see no need to match the Swiss drug maker in buying a gene-decoding business like Illumina Inc and reckon they can do partnerships instead.

from Global Investing:

When is a speculator not a speculator?

A lot of fuss is made about the dangers of speculators in commodity markets. But who is a speculator and who isn't is based on a definition drawn up in the early part of the last century in the United States. The definition is no longer valid and anybody looking at those reports should be wary of drawing any firm conclusions.

For a start the word "speculator" with negative connotations is applied to pension funds, which invest over the long term to provide retirement income for many people around the world. Hedge funds are normally speculators but if they have hold the physical commodity then they can say they are commercial hedgers. Taking this theme a little further many natural resource companies run their Treasuries as profit making centres, which encourages them to trade the commodities they produce.

The London Metal Exchange has said it won't go down the route the CFTC has and publish a weekly report detailing speculative long and short positions because there is no clear definition.

The CFTC bowing to popular pressure has continued to provide these weekly reports detailing long and short speculative positions, which ultimately could be misleading and make scapegoats of all investors whatever their ilk.

from Commodity Corner:

Live from London Metal Exchange Week 2009

The great and good of the global metals industry gather for London Metal Exchange week -- the flagship event for the industry.

With most base metal prices running way ahead of fundamentals, real and apparent demand unclear and leading economies at different stages of recovery or not, its a key time to take the temperature of banks, producers, consumers and funds involved in metals.

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