Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock 4Q rev. $2.89b, est. $2.93b (range $2.84b-$2.99b)

• 4Q adj. EPS $5.14, est. $5.02 (range $4.93-$5.18)
• Assets under management $5.15t, est. $5.14t (3 ests.)
• To Buy Back An Added 6M Shrs
• Boosts Qtr Div to $2.50/shr From $2.29, est. $2.40
• 4Q Total Long-Term net Inflows $87.8b
• 4Q Long-Term Equity net Inflows $58.0b
• Boosts Dividend
• 4Q Long-Term Fixed Income net Inflows $25.3b

NOTE:

• 12 buys, 6 holds, 0 sells before today
• Call 8:30am (NY time), (800)-374-0176 pw 39041891

Statement

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Ministry of Justice is reviewing the case for reforming laws on corporate liability for economic crimes such as fraud, false accounting and money laundering.

• The government has asked for evidence on whether existing laws are effective and the potential impact of changes
• The U.K. abandoned a proposal to alter legislation making it easier to prosecute corrupt companies in 2015 NSN NVEF4E6K50Y8

(Bloomberg) -- Further easing in India’s retail inflation last month strengthens the case for an RBI rate cut in February, economists say. The surprise jump in industrial production in November was largely due to base effect and the impact of Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s ban on high-value currency notes which will continue in the next few months, they say. Following are excerpts from published research:

• Nomura (Sonal Varma)
  • Both food and core inflation eased in December, suggesting inflation momentum has weakened further since demonetisation
  • Spike in factory output unsustainable near term, as excess inventory at end-November on weak sales after demonetisation will likely prompt firms to cut production in December
  • Expects process of remonetisation to last until end of February, which suggests that softer macro data are likely for the next two to three months
  • Given weak growth and inflation prints along with prospects of a prudent govt budget, expects a final RBI repo rate cut of 25bps to 6% in February

• PhillipCapital (Anjali Verma)
  • Higher factory growth can be attributed to favorable base and lesser-than-expected demonetization impact; wouldn’t fully attribute higher factory output growth to demonetization
  • Muted inflation should result in repo rate cut of 25-50bps in February; expects CPI inflation to remain below 4% in the coming months, risk being fuel and other commodity prices

• Kotak Mahindra (economists including Madhavi Arora)
  • 4Q FY17 will continue to see benign inflation dynamics, significantly undershooting RBI’s target, strengthening a case for a February cut
  • Retains view for RBI to front-load 50-75bps rate cuts through FY18, contingent on global environment and the quality of fiscal consolidation roadmap of govt

• Scotiabank (Qi Gao)
  • Benign December inflation paves way for RBI to cut its policy rate in February; if govt sticks to fiscal consolidation path in budget, a rate cut will likely be delivered

• IDFC Bank (Indranil Pan and Sameer Narang)
  • Base case for the extent of repo rate cuts continue to be at 25bps; core inflation has remained sticky - and will remain so while food inflation is also likely to reverse from the current lows

--ROBIN GANGULY