Australia’s bonds rose and the nation’s currency touched its lowest level in six months as concern that Spain will struggle to rescue its banks curbed demand for assets linked to growth.

Yields on all government debt maturing in two years or longer fell to records before a report that may show growth in building permits slowed in April, giving the Reserve Bank more scope to lower borrowing costs. New Zealand’s currency, nicknamed the kiwi, headed for its worst monthly loss since September against the U.S. dollar as Asian stocks retreated.

“Spain is becoming a huge problem,” said Derek Mumford, a director in Sydney at Rochford Capital, a currency risk management company. “A lot of money is going to be needed to bail them out. The Aussie will inevitably be dragged down to a very important support area at 94.50 to 95 cents.” Support is an area on a chart where orders to buy may be clustered.

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Graff Diamonds Corp. (1306) shelved a $1 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong as Europe’s debt turmoil drives first-time stock sales to the lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Graff, which depends on just 20 customers for almost half its revenue, cited “consistently declining stock markets” in an e-mailed statement. It had sought a valuation of as much as 24 times estimated full-year earnings, a higher multiple than those of luxury-goods companies including Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (HWD) and PPR SA.

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Police Use Facebook To Put End To Gang’s Crime Spree In Crown Heights

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Fourteen suspected members of a Crown Heights gang dubbed the “Brower Boys” have been indicted in connection with a year-long crime spree after talking about their alleged exploits onFacebook, authorities said Wednesday.

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Nikkei ,

S&P Futures  ,

Asian market update

Hollande only wants to impose austerity on the rich. I’m not a genius, but economies tend not to do well without an upper class, and people willing to invest.

France’s new socialist government has launched a crackdown on excessive corporate pay by promising to slash the wages of chief executives at companies in which it owns a controlling stake, including EDF, the nuclear power group.

In a departure from the more boardroom-friendly approach of the previous right-of-centre administration, newly elected president François Hollande wants to cap the salary of company leaders at 20 times that of their lowest-paid worker.

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France is unusual in that it still owns large stakes in many of its biggest global companies, ranging from GDF Suez, the gas utility; to Renault, the carmaker; and EADS, parent group of passenger jet maker Airbus.

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Maybe this is why they can’t work things out? Do the French not know how to use “Google Translate?”

The Brussels-based French-language press corps reacted with fury Wednesday to the release in English of the EU’s annual report cards on the bloc’s 27 economies.

In an angry open e-mail to the European Commission, the correspondent for the daily Liberation newspaper Jean Quatremersaid — in French: “Once again, all the documents published today are available only in English. This is unacceptable.”

The Commission released 1,500 pages of hotly-awaited reports on the state of the bloc’s economies along with proposals to redress public finances as Europe fights the debt crisis threatening some of its biggest economies.

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May 30 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service on W ednesday downgraded nine Danish financial institutions, pointing to sluggish economic growth, risks from the euro zone debt crisis and structural changes to the covered bond market, a reliable source of cash.

The Moody’s cut comes the same day that Standard & Poor’s lowered Danske Bank, Denmark’s biggest financial institution, one notch to A-minus/A-2 from A/A-1.

However, Moody’s cut Danske Bank’s long-term rating two notches, to Baa1 from A2, with a stable outlook – still within investment grade. Moody’s rating is now one step below S&P’s rating.

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Seriously though, there has been a lot of this stuff lately.

Police launched a hunt Wednesday for a male porn star after a human hand was found in the mail at an Ottawa post office, and a decomposing foot was sent to Canada’s ruling Conservative Party.

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The gruesome discoveries, described by Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews as “very disturbing,” were made hours after a severed torso was also discovered by a janitor in Montreal early Tuesday in a suitcase in a pile of garbage.

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These idiots need to be drug through the town square

Gorman said the malfunctions caused “unprecedented confusion and disarray” in the opening hours of trading in Facebook.

At the meeting, Gorman supported top bankers and equity capital markets executives who worked closely on the offering, including Michael Grimes, co-head of global technology banking at Morgan Stanley, as well as Daniel Simkowitz, chairman of the firm’s global capital markets business.

In the discussion, Gorman went so far as to recount a phone call he received from Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, last Friday evening. Gorman said Sandberg praised the company and offered Morgan Stanley a professional reference for its work on the deal.

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Hopefully this doesn’t slap the price of crude sideways.

Iran’s government has repeatedly used commercial aircraft to smuggle weapons and explosives to Syria and Lebanon, the German broadcaster ZDF reported Wednesday.

ZDF, citing Western security sources and unspecified information it said it had obtained, reported that  Iran Air and Yas Air, both based in Iran, have repeatedly used aircraft designated as passenger planes to transport weapons to Damascus and Beirut.  It was not clear from the report what type of weaponry was involved.

ZDF, a content partner of NBC News, said the weapons were supposedly ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which supports the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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This could be a serious investment opportunity if big pharma didn’t have their monies in the govt’s pockets.

According to Maariv, Tikkun Olam sought to neutralise the effect of the THC and to increase the effect of another substance called CBD, or cannabidiol, which has been shown to help diabetics and to ease various psychiatric disorders.

Not only does it leave users stone-cold sober, it also doesn’t induce the munchies, the hunger pangs that the drug’s smokers generally suffer.

Despite the innovation, it is unlikely to have any impact on Israeli law, which outlaws the use of marijuana as illegal except for medical purposes.

According to figures published earlier this year by Sheba Medical Centre and the Israel Cancer Association, medical marijuana has been approved for use by about 6,000 Israelis suffering from various illnesses.

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“The pool of high-rated assets has been shrinking, not just in the euro zone but elsewhere as well,” Ian Stannard, Morgan Stanley’s head of Europe currency strategy, said in a May 22 telephone interview. “With the core of Europe shrinking, and the available assets for reserve purposes shrinking, it makes the euro zone less attractive.”

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President Obama on Wednesday signed a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank that would raise its lending authority 40 percent to $140 billion by 2014 and pressed Congress to pass a list of other top White House priorities aimed at creating jobs and boosting the economy.

Enough Republicans came to the 78-year-old bank’s aid to move the bill to the president’s desk earlier this month after conservatives inCongress assailed it for meddling in the free market.

Increasing the bank’s lending power ensures “that we’re not just known as a nation that consumes,” the president said Wednesday at a signing ceremony. “We’ve got to be a nation that produces.”

Republicans quickly accused the president of hypocrisy, pointing out that he had called the bank “little more than a fund for corporate welfare” during the 2008 campaign and promised to eliminate it.

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Poverty awaits.

TIVO,  LGF, FB, OPEN, ZUMZ, ALTR, CA, RHT, BMC,

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It really is all about Spain.

From Ambrose-Evans Pritchard:

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Who would really mind falling off the list ?

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How low can we go ? Traders say there will be support @ around 1.51% AKA Bacardi time for pensioners and savers.

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