The LME is currently seeking bids to be acquired, with the CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) and IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) among the potential buyers. Firm bids for LME are due next week.

Adding the yuan would recognize the fact that China is the world’s largest consumer of the metals contracted at LME — copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, nickel, and tin. For China the adoption of the currency would be a major step in the country’s goal of internationalizing the yuan. Last month the government widened the fixed trading band on the yuan, but among the policy changes remaining is removing the restriction on foreign ownership of China’s currency.

According to a report at MarketWatch, market participants have supported the proposed move, although LME’s CEO said, “It’s like asking people if they’d like world peace or a pony for Christmas. Obviously [the answer is] yes.”

Paul Ausick

The firm noted, “BATS reported one of the best U.S. equities months in its history, with 11.5% market share in April, up from 10.6% one year ago and 10.9% in March. The BATS BYX Exchange earned a new monthly market share record with 2.8% U.S. equities market share, and BATS Options reported 3.1% U.S. equity options market share, up from 2.4% in March.  Seven new exchange traded funds were launched on the BATS Exchange in April, bringing the total number of ETFs now listed on BATS Exchange to 16.”

The NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) may have to be alone as far as the publicly traded exchanges that trade U.S. equities.  BATS may keep its relevance in share volumes, but its chances of coming public have dwindled severely.

By the way, our inquiries never were answered over how many programmers and IT-workers were fired after that botched IPO.

JON C. OGG

This is the first dividend paid out by NASDAQ to its common shareholders in the company’s history.  If you annualize the $0.13 as static per quarter, the yield comes to 2% for shareholders based upon the $25.33 price.  The rival NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) has a much higher dividend yield of about 4.5% and it has paid out a dividend since June of 2007.

Today’s dividend news is long overdue.  We have listed this exchange as a dividend sinner before and Raymond James noted the call for a dividend as recently as February.  If you look at the CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) it has been public far less time than NASDAQ and it has been paying a dividend since back in 2003.  CME Group even went as far as declaring a special dividend earlier this year on top of its regular common dividend.

CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) has been public for less than two years and it has been paying a dividend since late in 2010.  The leader in options trading has a dividend yield of about 1.8% and that dividend is likely to be raised in the next quarter or two.

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is now the last of the public U.S. securities exchanges which does not have a dividend yield. Today’s dividend news by NASDAQ is long overdue.

JON C. OGG

The move may seem like a coup for NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) and a loss for NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX).  Maybe it matters about the listing fees and the pride, but Facebook was not going be the end all be all for either exchange.  There are quite literally thousands and thousands of companies listed between these two exchanges.  Today is more about bragging rights than anything.

It is not as if Facebook was going to consider taking a BATS listing as the primary exchange after that SNAFU of an IPO.

JON C. OGG

The BATS Board of Directors stated its unanimous support for President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ratterman.  Ratterman is a founder and has led the company since June 2007.  The statement noted, “We fully support his leadership, vision and strategic direction as BATS continues to enhance competition and foster innovation in markets worldwide.”

Here is where this gets interesting: “In addition, as part of an enhanced corporate governance structure, the Board will separate the roles of Chairman and CEO. Mr. Ratterman, who has been Chairman since June 2007, will hold the position until a new Chairman is named.”

In short, Ratterman is losing the oversight control but is keeping the operational control.  “Splitting the roles” sure sounds like a demotion after such a large embarrassment as its IPO.

We have sent emails asking how many of the exchange’s technology officers got fired after the IPO SNAFU on Friday, but we have not heard back from the company on that matter.

JON C. OGG

The IPO ranks on our own Top 17 IPOs to Watch in 2012.  It is odd, but this one may be difficult for Joe Public to play in as the quote systems of most investors only take NASDAQ, NYSE, and the old AMEX quotes today.

The offering is to be for 6.3 million shares with an expected price range of $16.00 to $18.00 per share.  The exchange is the third largest exchange now with 10.9% market share in the U.S. for February share volume versus a market share of 10.7% a year ago.  Its options trading called BATS Options is shown to have a 2.8% market share compared to 1.7% a year ago with average daily matched volume of 483,306 contracts.

On a valuation basis, BATS is valued at a premium more like CBOE than the lower multiple of earnings like NASDAQ and NYSE.

The underwriting group is rather large.  Lead underwriters are Citi, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse; additional underwriters are Deutsche Bank Securities, Wedbush Securities, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Raymond James, Sandler O`Neill & Partners, Rosenblatt Securities, and Nomura.

Here is the Barron’s article called “Bullish on BATS” to read as well.

JON C. OGG

Another pet peeve is when NYSE listed shares have 4-letter tickers and/or when NASDAQ listings have 3-letter tickers.  The stock will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 30, 2012 under its current stock symbol “TEVA.”

Teva’s real problem is that its stock has been stuck, and now the question is whether the value today represents just the value of the generics business.  It is highly unlikely that the exchange listing has had anything to do with this.  At $43.24 the market value is roughly $38 billion.  This one has been a dud over the last year and the 52-week trading range is $35.00 to $51.30 and analysts have a consensus price target objective of $52.75.

JON C. OGG

What is interesting is that this one may be difficult for Joe Public to play in.  It may even be a bit difficult looking up a quote for some investors because the shares might not appear on all stock market quote systems immediately because it is not NASDAQ-listed nor NYSE-listed.

We are looking for about 6.3 million shares to be sold after a Thursday pricing with an expected price range of $16.00 to $18.00 per share.

BATS is one of our own TOP 17 IPOs TO WATCH IN 2012.

When Barron’s reported the deal it called BATS an attractive bet as a fast-growing electronic trading platform which has taken market share and crossed into new markets.  It is also indicated around 17-times current earnings, and investors need to consider that this is a premium to both the NASDAQ’s and NYSE’s 12-times earnings multiples.  The CBOE trades at almost 18-times trailing earnings.

The exchange claims to be the third largest exchange now with 10.9% market share in the U.S. per the company’s February share volume versus a market share of 10.7% a year ago.  Its options trading called BATS Options reported a 2.8% market share compared to 1.7% a year ago with average daily matched volume of 483,306 contracts.

BATS operates two stock exchanges in the U.S., the BATS BZX Exchange and BATS BYX Exchange; BATS Options, a U.S. equity options market; and BATS Europe and Chi-X Europe, which operate FSAauthorized multilateral trading facilities.

The underwriting group is rather large.  Lead underwriters are Citi, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse; additional underwriters are Deutsche Bank Securities, Wedbush Securities, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Raymond James, Sandler O`Neill & Partners, Rosenblatt Securities, and Nomura.

Here is the retail roadshow.

JON C. OGG

The private shares exchange this morning sent out an email to its members noting, “SecondMarket has created a way for qualified investors interested in smaller lot sizes of Facebook shares to participate in our weekly auctions. Effective immediately, investors may bid for 5,000 to 20,000 Facebook shares through SecondMarket’s Facebook fund, which will then purchase Facebook shares for its own account through the auction. If your bid is successful, you will be able to purchase a number of membership units in SecondMarket’s Facebook fund equal to the number of Facebook shares that the fund purchased based on your bid.”

While there are entities like GSV Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GSVC) which already own Facebook shares, this is the first effort of a crossover from a legitimate and reputable firm to create a Facebook fund.

Facebook is a part of our TOP 17 IPOs TO WATCH IN 2012, and actually it is THE most important IPO of the year.

Effectively, this brings down the minimum investment to close to $200,000 and the summary notes, “Upon a Facebook liquidity event, the fund will distribute shares directly to the investor brokerage accounts.”

The distribution noted that the fund expects to hold the Facebook stock until 180 days after a Facebook Liquidity Event.  The fund charges a 3% subscription fee, collected upon an investor subscribing to the fund. The fund also charges a 3% distribution fee, payable in shares of Facebook stock upon distribution.

JON C. OGG

Sarkozy has long supported the tax, which — if it followed European Commission recommendations — would add 0.1% of the value of an equity or bond transaction and 0.01% of every derivative transaction to the EU’s coffers.

The argument against such a tax is that unless it is adopted universally, the uneven playing field would send investors to countries where such taxes are not imposed. The UK’s prime minister stated the case against the tax succinctly:

The idea of a new European tax, when you are not going to have that tax put in place in other places, I don’t think is sensible. So I will block it unless the rest of the world all agreed at the same time that we were all going to have some sort of tax.

While such a tax could raise up to €55 billion in the EU, Bloomberg News notes that consulting firm Ernst & Young believe that such a tax would ultimately cost Europe as much as €116 in lost economic activity and reduced taxes from other sources.

Do they think that firms will not have an interruption transacted business from such a tax?  Capital seeks nations that treat it the best, and in many cases this is the equivalent of an incentive tax because it taxes investors and trading firms whether they make money or lose money.

Paul Ausick