Metals trader pleads guilty to spoofing
CHICAGO -- A trader who conspired to manipulate futures contracts in precious metals committed those actions while working at Deutsche Bank, according to a person familiar with the matter, and he is now cooperating with prosecutors.
The trader, David Liew, pleaded guilty to fraud on Thursday in federal court in Chicago for his role in the spoofing of contracts for gold, silver, platinum and palladium, according to court papers. Spoofing is placing orders without the intent of executing them in an attempt to manipulate the price.
Liew worked on his own but also with at least three other traders at the bank to coordinate spoofing hundreds of times, practices he said he learned from his co-workers, according to court documents. Liew's employer is described as Bank A in the plea agreement and identified as Deutsche Bank by the person familiar with the matter.
Along with the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission settled an enforcement action against Liew on Friday, banning him from trading in markets the agency oversees.
Liew's lawyer, Neil MacBride, and a Deutsche Bank spokesman, Troy Gravitt, declined to comment.
-- Bloomberg News
Russian oil chief derides electric cars
MOSCOW -- The day after President Donald Trump said the U.S. will exit from the Paris climate deal, the Russian chief of the world's largest listed oil producer by output is taking on electric cars.
Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Rosneft PJSC, called manufacturers including Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. overvalued and said electric cars are "not as popular as had been expected" in Europe's biggest economies. Sechin challenged Tesla's valuation and business model in particular, citing "extremely aggressive" sales growth plans and criticizing the carmaker's capital expenditures.
"The market's assessment of the prospects of electric car producers, in our view, is significantly overestimated," Sechin said in a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday. "The unconditional truth remains in the fact that the hydrocarbon power industry has been and will be in demand."
Major oil companies have been trimming their long-term forecasts for oil demand as electric cars start to compete with gasoline models on both price and performance. Crude futures in New York have lost 8 percent since Russia and OPEC extended a historic deal to curb output last week, in part because of concern the supply pact will encourage more output from U.S. producers.
Tesla, whose shares have gained 60 percent this year, overtook Rosneft by market value for the first time on May 31. The electric carmaker's market capitalization is about $56.2 billion versus $55.4 billion for Rosneft. Shares in Rosneft, controlled by the state and subjected to U.S. government sanctions, are down 20 percent in London this year.
-- Bloomberg News
Hackers break into password manager
NEW YORK -- Hackers have gained access to OneLogin, an online password manager that offers a single sign-on to multiple websites and services.
OneLogin disclosed the hack in a blog post but didn't specify the data accessed in the breach.
Published reports, however, say OneLogin informed customers that the hackers appeared to have found a way to access encrypted data. Passwords are typically stored that way.
OneLogin didn't immediately respond to an inquiry.
Password managers help people keep track of passwords for a growing array of websites and services that require one. Instead of having to remember complex passwords for each one, people can just remember a master password. The password service then unlocks other accounts as needed.
In 2015, rival LastPass said hackers obtained some user information -- but not actual passwords.
-- The Associated Press
Chinese firm buys French crystal maker
PARIS -- French crystal maker Baccarat is changing hands 253 years after it was founded by royal decree of King Louis XV.
Chinese investment company Fortune Fountain Capital Ltd. is buying a controlling stake from Baccarat's private-equity owners for about $184 million, according to a statement Friday.
The deal ends more than a decade of ownership by Starwood Capital, which took over the brand from the Taittinger family in 2005. Buyout firm L Catterton, which is backed by luxury-goods leader Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, took a stake in 2012, and not much more than 10 percent of the shares are publicly traded.
Baccarat is known for sets of champagne glasses that cost as much as $990 and chandeliers that can cost thousands. It also sells a $5,000 glass chair.
The brand's finest works include a crystal balustrade at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace, and its designs have been collected by royal families including that of Portugal. Some Baccarat pieces have been exhibited at the Louvre.
-- Bloomberg News
Greek economy posts surprise growth
ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's economy unexpectedly expanded in the the first quarter, reversing an estimate that had showed it slipped back into recession.
Gross domestic product rose 0.4 percent after shrinking a revised 1.1 percent the previous quarter, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Friday. An initial reading on May 15 showed a 0.1 percent contraction. The data follow a report Thursday that showed an improvement in manufacturing, with a Purchasing Managers Index rising to a nine-month high, close to the key 50 level.
Greece is seeking greater clarity from creditors on measures to ease the country's debt load after the government and officials from the International Monetary Fund and euro-area institutions ended a monthslong impasse over the austerity measures the government needs to take. That austerity has weighed on the economy, which remains far smaller than its pre-crisis level.
Delays in reaching last month's preliminary agreement -- a milestone the government hoped to reach before the end of 2016 -- have dampened the outlook. The government cut its 2017 economic growth forecast last month to 1.8 percent from 2.7 percent.
The expansion in the first quarter was driven by consumption, which increased 0.4 percent, and gross capital formation, which expanded 48.3 percent from the previous quarter. At the same time, exports declined 2.3 percent, while investment also fell.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 06/03/2017