Breakingviews

Miners can live with a not-so-super cycle

By Kevin Allison

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The super cycle is turning and miners’ super returns are under threat. But they can probably avoid another period of value destruction like the one that preceded the decade-long materials boom.

Hot infrastructure auctions drive down returns

By Quentin Webb

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The market for infrastructure assets is heating up. Yield-hungry investors are keen on large, predictable businesses in the less rickety bits of Europe. So auctions like E.ON’s sale of its German gas pipes run pretty hot. Even if the bets are less extravagant than during the credit boom, returns will suffer.

The business of ice hockey has never been so good

By Rob Cox
This column appeared in the May 21 edition of Newsweek magazine. The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

It must be killing Gary Bettman to keep so much good news on ice. The National Hockey League is Bettman’s business, and business is the best it has been since he became its commissioner nearly 20 years ago. Thanks to ferocious competition inside the rink and the biggest broadcasting commitment in league history, more Americans are debating the finer points of penalty kills and two-line passes than ever.

China diversified dot-coms avoid Facebook pitfalls

By Wei Gu

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

High-growth Chinese internet companies may be surprisingly defensive investments. True, fears about the cyclical advertising business have driven down shares in Renren, China’s Facebook lookalike. But other Chinese dot-coms should suffer less. Strong roots in gaming, whose revenue is still surging, makes diversified players like Tencent and Sohu comparatively recession proof.

Nasdaq howler can’t explain Facebook flop for long

By Antony Currie
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Nasdaq OMX is rightly coming in for a bashing after a systems howler on its U.S. exchange left Facebook’s stock trading in the dark for much of its public market debut on Friday. Chief Executive Bob Greifeld has already fessed up that the stock exchange was at fault. But the blunder has a limited shelf life as an explanation for Facebook’s IPO flop.

JPMorgan loss kicks succession race into high gear

By Rob Cox
This column appeared in the May 21 edition of Newsweek magazine. The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

A time-honored tradition for handling executive succession on Wall Street is the practice of putting two ferrets in a sack, figuratively speaking. That’s when a bank takes two promising managers and makes them co-heads of the same business. The expectation is that, like two feral mammals clawing each other in the darkness, one will emerge victorious. He will become CEO. The other is named deputy vice chairman of Bolivian equities. JPMorgan has yet to officially haul out the burlap sack, but the $2 billion trading loss it disclosed two weeks ago has accelerated the contest to succeed Jamie Dimon at the top of America’s biggest financial institution.

Not that Dimon is leaving anytime soon. His hair may be silver, but he’s only 56 and has every intention of running the place into his 60s. Moreover, the losses from bets on funky derivatives incurred by the chief investment office in London look manageable for a bank that minted a $5.4 billion profit in the first quarter and boasts nearly $200 billion in capital. But as Dimon readily admits, the trades were dumb. They certainly undermined many of his public arguments for resisting additional regulation of the banking industry. As a consequence, the question of who will one day fill Dimon’s wingtips has become a money-industry parlor game.

Long-awaited Yahoo deal heaps pressure on Alibaba

By Wei Gu

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

Alibaba has finally reached a truce with Yahoo. The Chinese e-commerce giant is offering at least $7 billion to buy back its own shares from the U.S. internet group, recapturing half the stake Yahoo acquired in 2005 for $1 billion. The timing is good, since Facebook’s IPO has left cashed-up investors who could help finance the deal. But a successful outcome will heap pressure on Alibaba.

Graff Diamonds IPO gleams but doesn’t dazzle

By John Foley

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

It’s hard to think of a company more plugged into the 0.1 percent than Graff Diamonds. The UK diamond merchant, which in 2011 sold rocks worth almost $100 million to a single customer, plans to list its shares in Hong Kong, in an offering that could raise $1 billion and value the whole at $4 billion. Strip out the hype over the ascent of the super-rich, and the valuation looks solid if not a steal.

Facebook IPO features best and worst of capitalism

By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Facebook’s initial public offering on Friday showcases the best and worst sides of capitalism. Execrable puffery accompanies the entrepreneurial achievement of transforming a dorm-room project into a company worth over $100 billion in just eight years. Poor corporate governance, Silicon Valley cronyism, breathless pundits spewing misinformation, bankers in hoodies and manic investors are all on display. And yet the flip side of such indulgence is worth admiring. 

Wall Street’s premier event of the year turned into an outright circus, including a 30-minute delay for the shares to start trading on Nasdaq despite considerable anticipation of the mega-volume that ensued. At its most benign, otherwise serious thinkers about capital markets devoted unthinkable amounts of time publicly debating whether founder Mark Zuckerberg’s casual dress was a slight to investors while financiers cravenly sucked up to the 28-year-old. But there’s a darker side to the hoopla, too. 

Greek dilemma might come to head before next poll

By Hugo Dixon

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

So the world has to wait until June 17 to find out whether Greece stays in the euro? Not so fast. Things might come to a head even before the next poll if deposit flight accelerates.