via guestofaguest: When he's not busy figuring out how to save the gulf coast or how to improve health care, Barack Obama is making appearances on really important shows…like The View. Tomorrow Barack will add another notch in his belt of president first's, making himself the first sitting president on the daytime gab fest.  MORE>>

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$$$ How Morgan Stanley Bucked A Trend In Trading [Dealbook]

$$$ Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness [NYT]

$$$ Wall Street’s Wrist Slap [NYO]

$$$ Matthew Simmons: “We’ve now killed the Gulf of Mexico” [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Everybody wants to know just where the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will spread. Intel’s Encanto supercomputer in New Mexico has calculated just where the oil will go, using a complex ocean current simulation.

As the company described in a blog post, the computer model predicts that the oil on the surface will by carried by the gulf’s Loop Current over hundreds of miles to Florida. Then it will curl around the state and head into the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. The spill could thus cause damages thousands of miles up the East Coast of the U.S.

The model was created by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The Parallel Ocean Program had already been created as part of a theoretical experiment to model the weather in the ocean, and scientists adapted it for the spill. The simulation ran on Intel’s Encanto supercomputer in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The supercomputer, No. 32 on the list of fastest supercomputers, is a water-cooled machine with 28 tall cabinets and more than 3,500 Intel quad-core Xeon processors.

The first runs at the simulation took more than 250,000 hours of computer time, with 1,000 cores working in parallel. The simulation showed that the big mass of oil that was deep underwater was moving slow. But the oil at 65 feet and higher was moving quickly to Louisiana and Florida. In the Gulf Stream, the oil can move 100 miles per day. The simulation isn’t perfect, as it doesn’t take into account things such as oil density and bouyancy. Here’s a video that shows the predicted path of the oil.

Companies: Intel

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

$$$ Monsters In The Market [The Atlantic]

$$$ Phil Falcone interested in Newsweek? [BI]

$$$ Amid the Gulf crisis, Wall St touted BP stock [Reuters]

$$$ Oil spill could trigger massive rescue effort of Florida’s manatees [CNN]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but BP is in a bit of a tough spot right now. Some stuff went down in the Gulf Coast recently– would rather not rehash– and while it’s nothing to freak out about, things are a little tense. In the meantime the company needs, uh, just like a few clams (too soon for shellfish humor?) to tide itself over. Thinking like a few bill, give or take a few more bill.

Battling to plug a gushing oil well under the Gulf of Mexico, is seeking loans of $1 billion (676 million pounds) from each of seven banks to raise up to $7 billion, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC on Friday. Banks including Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland are working on loans of $1 billion each for BP, several banking sources said.

“BP is quietly approaching banks for the facility and it’s a club deal,” a second banker said. A third banker said that no U.S. banks were providing loans.

Embattled BP asks 7 banks for $1 billion each [Reuters]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Cracks Show BP Was Battling Gulf Well as Early as February (Bloomberg)
BP was struggling to seal cracks in its Macondo well as far back as February, more than two months before an explosion killed 11 and spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It took 10 days to plug the first cracks, according to reports BP filed with the Minerals Management Service that were later delivered to congressional investigators. Cracks in the surrounding rock continued to complicate the drilling operation during the ensuing weeks. Left unsealed, they can allow explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

Jim Chanos Shorts Oil Majors, Ford Shares, Hasn’t `Played’ BP (Bloomberg)
The founder of Kynikos Associates Ltd. said in a Bloomberg Television interview from his office in New York that his bearish calls on “some” energy companies, which he declined to identify, pre-date the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. “If you look at their cash-flow statements relative to their income statements, you will see companies that haven’t replaced reserves in years, and haven’t seen any increase in revenues in years,” he said. “They’re borrowing their dividend. They’re in effect liquidating.”

Calpers Asking California For More Money (Reuters)
Just $600 mill, just to tide them over.

Dick Bove: Goldman Case Going To Court (TSC)
“The longer this takes, the more likely it is that this thing is going to go to court and I’m still convinced the SEC doesn’t have a case,” Bove said in an interview. He argues the government never wins high-profile cases against companies that go to court.

Swiss Parliament Backs UBS Data Pact (WSJ)
With the passage of the law, Swiss tax officials, who had suspended processing the 4,450 names, are ready to hand over data on 1,200 accounts, according to a government spokeswoman. So far, the Swiss have sent 500 names of clients who consented to the immediate transfer of their details to the IRS.

Reining In Europe’s Deficits Is Just The First Step (FT)
David Cameron and Fredrik Reinfeldt: “Countries across Europe need fundamentally to change the way they deal with public finances so that debt crises of this magnitude can never happen again. That means that the stability pact must be taken seriously. There must be better safeguards against member states spending and borrowing too much and an early-warning system to identify problems before they get out of hand.”

Union Boss Hog In $300k Hooker Scam (NYP)
“A married, obese former president of a Port Authority union admitted yesterday in court to embezzling nearly $300,000 in member dues and using the cash for tawdry hook-ups with prostitutes, casino trips and lavish meals, sources told The Post.”

Nomura’s Schiffman Plans Hiring Push for `Full Scale’ U.S. Investment Bank (Bloomberg)
The firm plans to have about 100 bankers in the U.S. by the end of 2010, from about 65 currently, Glenn Schiffman, Nomura’s head of Americas investment banking, said in an interview this week at the firm’s New York headquarters at the World Financial Center. It has already recruited 50 bankers, he said.

Executives sound warning on hedge fund Ucits boom (Reuters)
“It’s nonsense to create these liquid vehicles. It’s much better to realise that hedge funds are an illiquid asset class,” said Gerlof De Vrij, managing director of absolute return strategies at APG, which manages 240 billion euros (200 billion pounds) in assets. “We’re not interested in Ucits funds. The focus on liquidity is something I don’t understand.”

Support Grows For EU Stress Test Disclosure (WSJ)
Both German and French finance ministries indicated they would support the publication of this year’s test results on a country-by-country and bank-by-bank basis, a move they said could help put fears over the soundness of European banks to rest.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Solar stocks are trading higher, apparently in anticipation that there could be some positive developments for the industry in an address tonight by President Barack Obama related to the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
As Reuters reports, Obama is expects to unveil a plan to reduce the country’s [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily