What's Important in the Financial World (12/14/2011) Corzine Charges, Apple Founding

Officials at CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) have given the Justice Department documents that may prove former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine knew his firm lent customer money to its operations in Europe. Corzine had been held in high esteem on Wall St. until recently. He is a former CEO of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and a senator from and the governor of New Jersey. Corzine’s reputation has been battered already by the bankruptcy of MF Global and charges that the firm commingled customer money with capital MF Global traded. To support the charges of what Corzine knew, CME Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said, “A CME auditor … participated in a phone call with senior MF Global employees wherein one employee indicated that Mr. Corzine knew about the loans that had been made from the customer segregated accounts.” Corzine’s problems may have only begun.

Oil Production

OPEC probably will keep oil production where it is now — at 30 million barrels a day. If so, this production will stay near three-year highs. OPEC likely will make the decision because of the faltering global recovery. The cartel understands that a sharp spike in crude prices could help drive the developed world back into a recession, a situation that would be unfavorable to demand levels — and OPEC’s sales — almost immediately.

Apple’s Papers

The documents signed to create Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) on April 1, 1976, sold at auction for $1.6 million. With the recent death of founder Steve Jobs and Apple’s huge success, it is amazing the price did not go higher. The papers were part of the beginning of Apple and were signed by Jobs and cofounders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The $1.6 million is certainly a good investment. Apple, now the most valuable company in the world by market cap, has not lost the cultlike following it had when Jobs was alive. Anything tied to its earliest days likely will grow in value.

Lumia Tested

An effort to bring Nokia (NYSE: NOK) back from near death in the smartphone sector reached another milestone. Its Lumia 800 handset was tested in the laboratories of carriers AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless. The Lumia will be the first widely distributed smartphone to run Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows mobile OS. The alliance between Nokia and Microsoft calls for an investment of billions of dollars in marketing and R&D. The Lumia’s greatest advantage is that it will run on superfast 4G LTE networks in the U.S. These networks have attracted customers who want rapid speed for downloads and to view multimedia.

Douglas A. McIntyre