News&Notes: LIBOR, Argentina & Calpers

Overnight dollar Libor falls to lowest level since June 2004 - Bloomberg.com
Bloomberg.com reports the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks charge each other for overnight loans in dollars fell 16 basis points to 1.12%, the lowest level since June 2004, the British Bankers' Association said. The rate for three-month loans dropped 29 basis points, or 0.29 percentage point, to 3.54%. The Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of cash availability that measures the difference between the three-month rate and the overnight indexed swap rate, narrowed to 250 basis points for the first time since Sept. 30.

Fall out:
Argentina default looms, pension seizure roils market - Bloomberg.com
Bloomberg.com reports Argentina's planned seizure of $29 bln of private pension funds stoked concern the nation is headed for its second default in a decade. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's decision hurt markets already reeling from slumping commodity prices and slower growth. The retirement system, set up in 1994 to help bolster capital markets, owns about 5% of companies listed on the Buenos Aires stock exchange and 27% of shares available for public trading, data compiled by pension funds show. Argentine bond yields soared above 24% before the announcement late yesterday, and the benchmark Merval stock index tumbled 11%. The last time the government sought to tap workers' savings to help finance debt payments was in 2001, just before it stopped servicing $95 bln of obligations.

Calpers says decline in assets may lead to increased employer contributions