Pirate attacks off West Africa’s coast have increased to levels that rival those seen in Somalia, insurers say, prompting maritime agencies to focus on setting aside their rivalries and cooperate to fight the rising threat.
The International Maritime Bureau says Nigeria and Benin reported 18 pirate attacks in the first half of 2011. While smaller than figures attributed to Somali pirates, analysts say the number of attacks off Nigerian waters is underreported because some ships carry illegal oil cargo and others fear their insurance rates will rise.
“I believe we are nearly at a crisis here and if it’s a crisis, there has to be action,” said Rear Adm. Kenneth J. Norton, deputy chief of staff for strategy, resources and plans for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, headquartered in Naples, Italy.
Officials from Nigeria’s Navy, its maritime industry and other groups met this week with U.S. officials aboard the HSV 2 Swift off Nigeria’s coast to discuss maritime issues, including formulating anti-piracy strategies.
The U.S. and other Western nations have an anti-piracy armada patrolling the waters off East Africa, but there is no West African counterpart, leaving Nigeria and its neighbors to stop the growing swell of attacks on their own.
A big problem, those involved say, has been a lack of cooperation among the many Nigerian institutions that deal with maritime issues.
“Somebody must take charge and whenever the functions overlap, somebody has to cede” said Capt. D.O. Labinjo, who represents a Nigerian ship owners’ association. “Instead of interagency cooperation, what we have been getting is interagency rivalry.”
London-based Lloyd’s Market Association, an umbrella group of insurers, earlier this month listed Nigeria, neighboring Benin and nearby waters in the same risk category as Somalia, where two decades of war and anarchy have allowed piracy to flourish.
As a result, shippers may be subjected to more checks and higher premiums, said Neil Smith, head of underwriting at Lloyd’s Market Association. That could mean additional costs for oil-rich Nigeria’s shipping industry, which exports crude crucial to the U.S. market.
It also can affect commercial shipping coming into Lagos’ busy Apapa Port and the thriving used-car market based in Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin.
Even as Nigerian agencies attempt to cooperate, the fast-changing patterns of pirates are testing their capabilities.
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has over the last eight months escalated from low-level armed robberies to hijackings, cargo thefts and large-scale robberies, according to the Denmark-based security firm Risk Intelligence.
West African pirates also have been more willing to use violence, beating crewmembers and shooting and stabbing those who get in the way. Analysts believe many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive.
Robbers appear to be targeting chemical and oil tankers sailing through the region.
Securities analyst Juli Niemann puts the matter bluntly: “Nobody could possibly be that stupid.”
Thus she summed up the attitude of Wall Street as President Barack Obama and the Republicans play chicken over the Aug. 2 debt limit deadline.
Investment pros don’t believe the nation’s leaders would dare default on the national debt. So, investors are chugging along as if all were well in Washington quick pay day loan.
If you look closely you can see a couple of nervous tics in the markets, says Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in downtown St. Louis. There’s a little extra volatility, slight changes in yield spreads on bonds.
Still, on Friday investors were accepting a paltry 0.01 percent
Eurozone finance ministers say they are ready to make their existing bailout fund more flexible in an effort to stop the currency union’s debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain.
Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers, said late Monday that the ministers will also look at giving bailed out countries more time to repay loans and lower their interest rates.
The ministers did not give many details on how the region’s bailout fund could be made more flexible, but previous suggestions included giving the fund the power to buy distressed debt on the open market to stabilize prices.
Banks who have been involved in talks over contributions to a second bailout for Greece have also been pushing for eurozone funded bond buybacks, which could cut the country’s overall debt load.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BRUSSELS (AP) _ European officials tried Monday to prevent the eurozone’s debt crisis from spilling over into bigger economies such as Italy and Spain, as disagreements delayed a second bailout for Greece.
Intense debate over how, and how much, banks and other private investors can contribute to a new rescue package for Greece has unsettled financial markets in the currency union, most dramatically in Italy, as rating agencies warn that even a voluntary involvement will likely be seen as a partial default of Greece on its massive debts.
Though the proposals currently doing the rounds may be less severe than a Greek payment halt, for example, rating agency Moody’s said in a note Monday that the “prospect of any form of private sector participation in debt relief is obviously negative for holders of distressed sovereign debt.”
That warning follows a report last week from Standard & Poor’s that said that even a relatively market-friendly French proposal on a voluntary rollover of Greek debt would likely trigger a “selective default” rating.
Investors are concerned that the debt crisis, which has so far been contained to the small economies of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, could soon drag down bigger countries like highly indebted Italy and unemployment-ridden Spain. The mere size of their economies could easily overwhelm the rescue capacity of the rest of the eurozone.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called for a “swift and precise clarification” of how a second bailout for Greece might work, to help ease the tension. He said the meeting of finance ministers in Brussels on Monday should “contribute to that goal.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also urged quick action on new aid for Greece and added that Italy needs to send a “very important signal” by passing an austerity budget. She said she discussed the issue by phone on Sunday with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
“I have firm confidence that the Italian government will approve just such a budget … and, in so doing, Italy will send a signal that it feels committed to consolidation and fighting debt,” she said absolutely free credit score.
Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti has proposed euro48 billion ($67 billion) in new savings over three years and aims to cut the deficit to zero by 2014 from this year’s 3.9 percent of gross domestic product. The measures must still make it through Parliament.
Italian stocks and bonds fell Friday after Berlusconi was quoted as making critical comments about Tremonti in an interview in La Repubblica newspaper, raising questions about his support for his finance chief. Berlusconi said Tremonti “is the only one who is not a team player.”
Italy has a heavy debt load of around 120 percent of economic output, but so far has not had any trouble borrowing to refinance it. Still, it has weak growth prospects, an expensive pension system and lagging productivity.
Most officials, however, tried to play down concerns over Italy, which has moved to the center of debate over the past days and seen its borrowing costs rise sharply, and said that there was time until September to reach a final deal on Greece.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that Italy is taking the right decisions,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said, referring to planned austerity measures. “All this is the normal excitement ahead of such meetings. One doesn’t have to take this so seriously.”
The markets were telling a different story. The yield, or interest rate, on Italian and Spanish government bonds shot up Monday, in contrast to other big economies, while the euro dropped 1.15 percent to $1.4044.
The yield on Italian 10-year bonds jumped to 5.6 percent from 5.3 percent at the beginning of trading, following sharp rises on Thursday and Friday. Shares on the Milan stock market slipped 3.4 percent.
Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds meanwhile rose to 5.9 percent from 5.7 percent.
“The fact that contagion is spreading marks the failure of politicians to draw a line under the euro-crisis to date,” Rabobank analyst Jane Foley said. “As yields rise and debt financing costs become even more exaggerated the difficulties of containing the crisis become even bigger.”
At the center of Monday’s discussions will be whether a substantial contribution from banks to a second Greek bailout is worth letting the country temporarily slip into default.
A partial default rating may only last a “very short time,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, indicating that some ministers may be moving away from their previous assertion that a default rating must be avoided at all cost.
To stay afloat until mid-2014, Greece will need an extra euro115 billion ($164 billion)_ on top of the euro110 billion ($157 billion) it was granted last year _ according to the European Commission, although some of the money will come from privatizations.
World markets were mixed Monday as Greece’s parliament began debating harsh new austerity measures that must pass for the country get its next batch of emergency financial aid.
Oil prices fell below $91 a barrel. The dollar dipped against the euro but was higher against the yen.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 percent higher at 5,717.80, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.1 percent to 7,129.43. France’s CAC-40 was 0.3 percent higher at 3,794.70.
Wall Street was set for a higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures 0.2 percent higher at 11,910 and S&P 500 futures rising 0.3 percent to 1,267.50.
Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent to close at 9,578.31, with even export shares failing to get a bounce from the weakening yen, which makes Japanese products cheaper overseas. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest auto maker, fell 2.3 percent. Electronics giant Sony Corp. lost 2.1 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 1 percent to 2,070.29 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6 percent to 22,041.77. Analysts said the overriding worry of the week was whether debt-drenched Greece would enact a slew of harsh austerity measures in order for the country to receive a chunk of its multibillion euro bailout.
If those measures fail to win parliamentary approval, the country would run out of money in mid-July and be at serious risk of defaulting on its debts, a prospect that could unleash financial shocks globally.
Tey Tze Ming, a trader at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, said the European debt crisis _ if it blows up and spreads beyond Greece to a major economy like Spain _ would be felt very keenly by Asian economies that are heavily dependent on exporting to Western Europe.
“In the short term, I think stocks in Asia are going to be in for a bit more pain. I think there’s a lot more downside,” Ming said.
A slump in tech shares on Wall Street on Friday carried over to Asia. South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor, one of the world’s leading computer chip makers, was 4.3 percent down. Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory slipped 2 percent, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing lost 1.2 percent.
But tumbling oil prices, which translate into lower fuel costs, helped sustain airline shares. Air China Ltd. rose 5 percent in Hong Kong. Taiwan’s EVA Airways Corp. was 0.7 percent higher. Autralian carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. rose 1.9 percent.
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 lost 1 percent to 4,461.80 amid a banking sector slip. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s largest lender, dropped 1.3 percent, while Westpac Banking Corp., which ranks No. 2, lost 0.4 percent.
Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand were also lower, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4 percent to 2,758.23 while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added 1.1 percent to 1,148.63.
Meanwhile, Italian banks were down sharply Friday on the Milan stock exchange after ratings agency Moody’s said it was considering downgrading their credit worthiness. Moody’s Investors Service placed the long-term debt and deposit ratings of 16 Italian banks and two Italian government-related financial institutions on review for a possible downgrade.
On Wall Street, stocks fell Friday after poor earnings reports from two major technology companies suggested that companies invested less in new technology as the economic recovery slowed.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1 percent to 11,934.58. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.2 percent to 1,268.45. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent to 2,652.89.
The U.S. economy has cooled since late April. Recent reports on housing, employment, manufacturing and retail sales all have been weak. The debt crisis in Greece and fears that China’s growth is slowing have also pushed markets lower.
In energy trading, benchmark oil for August delivery was down 83 cents to $90.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 14 cents to settle at $91.16 on Friday.
In currencies, the euro strengthened $1.4205 from $1.4171 on Friday in New York. The dollar ticked up to 80.74 yen from 80.52 yen.
Conrad Black wasn
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said banks’ business should be confined to loans and deposits to avert a recurrence of the federal bailouts and near-collapse of the financial system in 2008.
“The consequence of expanding the safety net to an ever- increasing range of activities is to invite a repeat of our most recent crisis,” Hoenig said today in a speech in Philadelphia. “With separation of activities, risks will remain in the financial system, but unlike the past decade, this risk will be priced more correctly and failure can be resolved more equitably.”
The proposal by Hoenig, 64, the longest-serving current Fed policy maker, is in line with his previous calls for the breakup of large financial firms and for tougher bank regulations than officials such as Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have publicly supported. Hoenig, who retires Oct. 1, said last month that international capital requirements are too lax to prevent another U.S. banking crisis.
“Banking organizations that have access to the safety net should be restricted to the core activities of making loans and taking deposits and to other activities that do not significantly impede the market, bank management and bank supervisors in assessing, monitoring and controlling bank risk- taking,” Hoenig, who doesn’t vote on Fed monetary policy this year, said in the text of remarks.
He spoke at a conference hosted by the Global Interdependence Center and Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.
Cease Bets
Hoenig’s comments represent his backing of the Volcker Rule, named for former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, which Congress passed last year to force bank holding companies to cease bets with their own money outside of traditional lending.
“I strongly support the Volcker Rule and suggest it should be implemented with resolve and should be strengthened in its reach and impact,” Hoenig said.
Hoenig also proposed two other rules to ensure that the so- called “shadow banking” system doesn’t take on excessive risks as financial institutions evade regulation. Money market mutual funds should be required to have a floating net asset value instead of being allowed to maintain a fixed value of $1, he said.
In another change, lenders financing shadow banks would be allowed to liquidate mortgage debt used as short-term collateral in the event of default, rolling back a change in a 2005 bankruptcy law, Hoenig said.
Increase Stability
The changes would “increase the stability of the shadow banking system because term lending would be less dependent on ‘demandable’ funding and more reliant on term funding, and the pricing of risk would reflect the actual risk incurred,” Hoenig said.
The Kansas City Fed chief didn’t comment on the outlook for the economy or interest rates in his prepared remarks.
In a related policy paper released with the speech and co- written by Hoenig and Charles Morris, a Kansas City Fed vice president and economist, they wrote that banks would also be allowed to underwrite securities, advise on mergers and manage trusts and assets. Banks would be forbidden to “conduct broker- dealer activities, make markets in derivatives or securities, trade securities or derivatives for either their own account or customers or sponsor hedge or private equity funds.”
Burst Bubble
The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble and resulting cascade throughout the world financial system resulted in $2 trillion of writedowns and losses for financial companies from 2007 to 2009.
“The combination of securities and commercial banking activities in a single organization provides opportunities for the senior management and boards of directors to be increasingly influenced by individuals with a short-term perspective,” Hoenig said. “As a result, the increased propensity of these corporate leaders to take high risks for short-term gain leads to more of a short-term-returns culture throughout the organization.”
Hoenig dissented all eight times in 2010 from decisions of the monetary policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, preferring tighter credit.
The Fed is completing its $600 billion of Treasury purchases next month, ending a second round of so-called quantitative easing that was aimed at averting deflation and boosting a sluggish recovery. Hoenig opposed the program. In the first round of bond purchases, the central bank bought $1.7 trillion of mortgage debt and Treasuries. Policy makers are debating how and when to raise interest rates and sell the debt once the economy improves enough.
PARIS
U.K. retail sales surged the most in five years last month as public holidays and the warmest April on record spurred spending, the British Retail Consortium said.
Sales rose 5.2 percent in April from a year earlier on a like-for-like basis, which excludes new-store openings, the London-based BRC said in a report today. The reading follows a 3.5 percent annual drop in March, and taken together the data suggest sales over the two months stalled, the BRC said.
Britons stocked up on food and clothing during two consecutive four-day weekends at the end of the month to mark Easter and the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the report said. Spending may falter as consumers are squeezed by faster inflation and the government’s fiscal tightening fast cash now.
“Easter and the Royal Wedding bank holiday provided a badly needed boost to many retailers,” BRC Director General Stephen Robertson said in the report. Still, “the underlying pressures on the retail sector of climbing costs and depressed consumer spending will be problems for many months to come.”
Food sales rose an annual 2.1 percent in April, boosted by alcoholic drinks including champagne, the BRC said. Non-food sales fell 1.3 percent.
Confidence among U.S. chief executive officers improved at the start of the second quarter as more business leaders forecast pickups in demand, employment and spending on equipment, a survey showed.
The Young Presidents’ Organization gauge of sentiment rose to 64.1 in April, the highest since the survey began in the second quarter of 2009, from 63.5 in January, according to the Dallas-based group. A reading greater than 50 shows the executives’ outlook was more positive than negative.
With an improving U.S. labor market and stronger consumer spending, chief executives in the world’s largest economy are about as confident as their counterparts across the globe, where the optimism level averaged 64.3, the nonprofit service organization’s survey showed. The International Monetary Fund projects 2011 growth of 2.8 percent in the U.S., compared with 4.4 percent globally.
“After lagging most other regions for the past two years, the United States is now as optimistic as the world as a whole,” Alan Zafran, a YPO member and managing partner at Luminous Capital LLC in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “They clearly believe the worst of the recession is behind them.”
Sixty-seven percent of U.S. respondents said sales will increase in the coming 12 months, while 4.1 percent project weaker demand.
Hiring Plans
Hiring will pick up throughout the year at about 42 percent of the businesses surveyed, and 3.7 expect to reduce employee count, helping maintain six-straight months of U.S. payroll growth. Companies hired more workers than forecast in March, a Labor Department report showed last month.
The fixed investment index climbed to 62.8 in April, the highest level since the group began keeping records. The proportion of CEOs planning to boost capital spending was at 46 percent, according to the survey.
Executives in the construction industry, in which 62 percent of respondents expect a better business and economic climate in the next six months, contributed most to the improved outlook. Fifty-six percent of those executives had positive expectations in the prior survey.
The quarterly survey, conducted during the first two weeks of April, received responses from 2,582 U.S. CEOs.
The index of U.S. leading economic indicators probably increased for a ninth month in March, signaling higher fuel costs will fail to derail the expansion, economists said before a report today.
The Conference Board’s gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months rose 0.3 percent after a 0.8 percent gain in February, according to the median forecast of 53 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Other data today may show claims for jobless benefits fell manufacturing continues to expand.
The labor market is improving and manufacturing is enjoying stronger export growth and business investment, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s view of a “moderate” economy. At the same time, the leading index was likely restrained by a drop in consumer expectations linked to higher gasoline prices that mean Americans have less to spend on other goods and services.
“The recovery seems to be strong enough to continue despite all these crises,” including unrest in the Middle East and north Africa that’s helped drive up oil prices, said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Group in New York. “We probably have seen most of the impact of high oil prices in the first quarter.”
The New York-based Conference Board, a private research group, is scheduled to release its report at 10 a.m. Bloomberg survey estimates ranged from no change to a 0.5 percent increase.
10 Measures
Seven of the 10 measures that make up the Conference Board’s leading index are known ahead of time: stock prices, jobless claims, building permits, consumer expectations, the yield curve, factory hours and supplier delivery times. The Conference Board estimates new orders for consumer goods, bookings for capital equipment and money supply adjusted for inflation.
In February, eight components contributed to the gain, including a positive spread between short- and long-term interest rates, an increase in stocks values and fewer people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time.
Jobless claims have declined since the beginning of the year. A Labor Department report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington may show fewer Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 16. New claims dropped by 22,000 to 390,000 from the prior week, according to the median forecast in the Bloomberg survey.
Manufacturing Mainstay
Factories have been the mainstay of the expansion that began in June 2009. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index, due at 10 a.m., will probably show manufacturing in the region moderated in April after expanding last month at the fastest pace in 27 years. The gauge eased to 36.8 from 43.4 in March, according to the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey.
Shares of machinery producers have outpaced the broader market so far this year. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Machinery Index has gained 8.7 percent through yesterday compared with a 5.8 percent rise in the S&P 500.
Strength at the nation’s factories is spilling over into the rest of the economy. CSX Corp., the third-biggest U.S. railroad, said yesterday that profit rose 30 percent as shipping volumes increased.
“We’re continuing to see, quarter after quarter, the markets keep improving,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Ward said in an interview at Bloomberg News’ New York headquarters on April 6.
The Fed said April 13 in its Beige Book report in Washington that most of its districts “stated that gains were widespread across sectors” in February and March.
Hurdles for consumers, whose spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, include higher prices for fuel and food. The average price of a gallon of gasoline was $3.84 on April 19, the highest since September 2008. In March, gas averaged $3.53 a gallon, compared with $2.78 a year earlier.
Bloomberg Survey ================================================================ Initial Cont. LEI Philly Claims Claims Fed ,000’s ,000’s MOM% Index ================================================================ Date of Release 04/21 04/21 04/21 04/21 Observation Period 16-Apr 9-Apr March March —————————————————————- Median 390 3675 0.3% 36.8 Average 392 3679 0.3% 36.2 High Forecast 410 3800 0.5% 43.8 Low Forecast 370 3650 0.0% 28.0 Number of Participants 47 17 53 55 Previous 412 3680 0.8% 43.4 —————————————————————- 4CAST Ltd. 390 — 0.4% 38.5 ABN Amro Inc. 390 — — 38.0 Action Economics 385 3670 0.4% 38.0 Aletti Gestielle SGR 385 — 0.1% 36.0 Ameriprise Financial Inc 390 3680 0.4% 35.0 Banesto — — 0.2% 37.5 Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi 390 — 0.2% 32.4 Barclays Capital 390 — 0.3% 36.0 Bayerische Landesbank — — 0.4% — BBVA 395 3660 0.5% 33.0 BMO Capital Markets 390 3682 0.3% 36.8 BNP Paribas 395 — 0.4% 38.0 BofA Merrill Lynch Resear 400 — 0.2% 38.0 Briefing.com 370 3650 0.2% 30.0 Capital Economics — — 0.3% 35.0 CIBC World Markets — — 0.3% 35.0 Citi 390 3670 0.2% 30.0 ClearView Economics — — — 38.0 Commerzbank AG 400 — 0.5% 37.0 Credit Agricole CIB — — — 40.0 Credit Suisse 390 — 0.1% — Daiwa Securities America — — 0.1% — DekaBank — — 0.3% 35.0 Desjardins Group 388 — 0.2% 35.0 Deutsche Bank Securities 390 — 0.5% 36.0 Deutsche Postbank AG — — 0.3% — Fact & Opinion Economics 385 — 0.4% 41.0 First Trust Advisors 398 — 0.5% 35.8 Goldman, Sachs & Co. — — — 33.0 Helaba 400 — 0.3% 35.0 HSBC Markets 400 — — 35.0 Hugh Johnson Advisors — — 0.1% 40.0 IDEAglobal 395 — 0.3% 38.0 Informa Global Markets 400 3665 0.2% 39.0 ING Financial Markets 395 3675 0.3% 37.5 Insight Economics 390 3650 0.3% 35.0 Intesa-SanPaulo — — — 37.5 J.P. Morgan Chase 400 — — 39.0 Janney Montgomery Scott L — — 0.3% — Jefferies & Co. 395 — — 33.0 Landesbank Berlin 375 — 0.0% 28.0 Landesbank BW — — — 37.5 Manulife Asset Management 400 3700 — — Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc 400 — — — MF Global 395 — 0.2% 30.0 Moody’s Analytics 405 3680 0.2% 40.0 Morgan Keegan & Co. — — 0.3% — Morgan Stanley & Co. — — 0.1% — Nomura Securities Intl. — — 0.5% 32.0 Nord/LB 400 — — 38.0 Parthenon Group 393 — 0.3% 32.8 Pierpont Securities LLC 390 — — — PineBridge Investments 380 — 0.5% 41.0 PNC Bank — — 0.3% — Raymond James — — 0.1% — RBC Capital Markets 410 — — 32.0 RBS Securities Inc. 390 — — — Scotia Capital 400 3800 — 40.0 Societe Generale 382 3650 — 43.8 Standard Chartered 380 3703 0.3% 35.0 State Street Global Marke 390 3689 0.3% 38.5 Stone & McCarthy Research 385 — 0.4% 35.7 TD Securities 380 3650 0.2% 35.0 UBS 400 — 0.1% 40.0 UniCredit Research — — 0.3% — University of Maryland 385 — 0.3% 39.0 Wells Fargo & Co. — — 0.5% — WestLB AG — — 0.1% 37.0 Westpac Banking Co. — — 0.3% 30.0 Wrightson ICAP 385 3675 0.4% 38.0 ================================================================
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Kowalski in Washington at akowalski13@bloomberg.net
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