Pescod Says...

Trading loss grows at JPMorgan

The chase by Noah Zivitz:

Quite a day for JPMorgan Chase & Co. The infamous trading loss has ballooned to $4.4 billion. The Chief Investment Office's synthetic group is being shuttered. CEO Jamie Dimon says recent events are limited to the CIO division and the bank believes it has "put most of this problem behind us." The board is continuing to review whether more action is required as a result of what transpired in the CIO. As for earnings, the net income came in miles ahead of expectations, but it's littered with one-time items. Strip it all away, and it looks like a miss.

Dimon is trying to reassure investors, saying JPM's fortress balance sheet is still strong. His Q&A with analysts at 7:30 a.m. ET should be fascinating. We'll have it all covered, with Paul Bagnell doing the heavy lifting. Let's evaluate whether Dimon has done enough to restore his reputation, and ask guests if investors should touch JPM shares today.

And don't forget Wells Fargo is also reporting.

We're also staring at a round of economic Whack-A-Mole.

In China, second quarter growth sputtered to the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2009. A 7.6-percent expansion is enough to make most Western nations blush; not so in Beijing, where policymakers have been flexing their stimulus trigger fingers in recent weeks. Today we must ask what the next moves are in Beijing's halls of power.

Here's where our mallets come into play: Moody's cut its rating on Italian debt two notches to Baa2, leaving it barely above junk status. No need to rattle through the rationale, let's cut straight to the chase: is Mario Monti's government at risk of facing a buyer's strike when it goes to market?

Let's continue connecting the dots back to Canada. Mark Carney's central bank faces big decisions next week. We need to set expectations.

A highlight of BNN's programming today will be David Darst. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's chief investment strategist sits down for a long chat on Business Day.

Also ahead, we've got U.S. consumer sentiment at 9:55 a.m. ET, Dell's annual meeting at 9, and a speech from the Atlanta Fed president at 1:20 p.m.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has hit the runway in Norway, purchasing a 75 percent stake in Helly Hansen. We need to know more about the apparel maker.

As for the frenzy in recent days about Canada's new money wilting under the blazing heat, the Bank of Canada tells us there's no evidence the polymer in your pockets can't stand up to the rigours of summer.

Story...RIM Execs Face Investors

The chase by Marty Cej:

Research In Motion executives are beginning their annual general meeting with shareholders. BNN begins its special coverage of the event now. Kim Parlee and Andrew McCreath will report live from the company's hometown of Waterloo, ON throughout the trading day, including interviews with company executives and shareholders. They will also Tweet live from inside the AGM as RIM's leadership face tough questions from shareholders. The company, Canada's largest by market value just a few years ago, has plenty to answer for and shareholders will be less forbearing than in recent quarters after new CEO Thorstein Heins announced a few weeks ago a wider-than-expected loss, 5,000 job cuts and a delay in the release of the BB10 operating system and phones to 2013.

One of the biggest challenges RIM faces is convincing current BlackBerry users to consider buying the next iteration of the smartphone and winning over new smartphone users. Much of that challenge falls to Rick Costanzo, executive vice-president of global sales. Constanzo sits down with us this morning to discuss the opportunities in new markets and the challenges in mature ones.

In the meantime, European equity markets are rallying and Spanish bond yields are tumbling 22 basis points after European finance ministers agreed to accelerate the disbursement of 30 billion euros in aid to shore up Spanish banks by the end of this month and may move the costs of the bailouts off the Spanish government's balance sheet to better insulate the Spanish economy from the debt crisis. "There's no emergency here," Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden told Reuters. He did. He really said that. Anyhow, the finance ministers were stymied in their attempts to make any advances in the creation of a single European banking supervisor, something that would help make direct recapitalization of European banks easier, but the markets are applauding this short-term answer to the Spanish question.

There are plenty of important sectors and stocks to watch today. Keep an eye on the semiconductor chipmakers after Advanced Micro Devices last night warned of an unexpected decline in second-quarter sales. The world's second-biggest maker of PC processors said demand was being hamstrung by slower economic growth in China and failing economies in Europe. The rising popularity of tablets is also hurting AMD, which doesn't make chips for the devices. Intel, meanwhile, last night agreed to invest as much as $4.1 billion in Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML to help shave time off production schedules.

Watch the U.S. coal stocks today after Patriot Coal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the close of trading yesterday. Some companies will have direct contractual exposure to Patriot, such as Peabody and Arch Coal, while others might simply be affected by a change in sentiment towards the whole sector, which continues to be assailed by falling demand as energy generators turn to cheap natural gas. Other stocks to watch include Alpha Natural Resources, Cloud Peak, Walter Energy and Consol Energy.

Let's not forget about Alcoa, which kicked off the second-quarter U.S. earnings season. Alcoa earned 6 cents a share, in line with expectations, but the company is still likely to see earnings-per-share downgrades from analysts as they factor in lower aluminum prices. UBS today cut its 2012 profit forecast for Alcoa to 38 cents a share from 58 cents, and lowered its 2013 forecast to $1.26 from $1.56. UBS is also cutting its EPS estimates for base metals miners by 38 percent for 2012 and 12 percent for 2013 to reflect lower demand and falling prices.

Bankers Petroleum Ltd. Second Quarter 2012

Bankers Petroleum Operational Update for the Second Quarter 2012
cnw
June 2012 Average Monthly Production exceeds 14,800 bopd

CALGARY, July 5, 2012 /CNW/ - Bankers Petroleum Ltd. ("Bankers" or the
 "Company") (TSX: BNK, AIM:BNK) is pleased to announce the following
 second quarter operational update.

Production and Oil Prices
The average second quarter 2012 production was 14,167 barrels of oil per
 day ("bopd"). Oil sales from the Patos-Marinza oilfield in Albania
 during the quarter averaged 14,169 bopd, 7% higher than the first quarter 2012 rate. The crude oil
 inventory at June 30th was 305,000 barrels, relatively consistent with 312,000 barrels at March
 31st, 2012. Average production in June was 14,817 bopd.

The Patos-Marinza second quarter average oil price was approximately
 US$76.53 per barrel (representing 71% of the Brent oil price of
 US$108.19 per barrel), as compared with the first quarter average oil price of
 US$84.96 per barrel (72% of the Brent oil price of $118.49 per barrel).

For the six months ended June 30, 2012 oil sales were 13,724 bopd
 ($80.62 per barrel) an increase of 14% from 12,024 bopd ($72.56 per
 barrel) for the comparable 2011 period.

Drilling Update

Thirty-eight (38) wells have been drilled during the second quarter:
 Thirty-six (36) horizontal production wells and one (1) water disposal
 well and one (1) exploration well in Block "F". Twenty-nine (29) of the
 horizontal wells have been completed and placed on production with 25
 wells averaging 120 bopd per well and four wells have high water cuts.
 The remaining seven (7) wells are currently undergoing completion
 operations and will be on production in the next several days. Base
 production from producing wells at the end of the first quarter
 declined by approximately 8%, another 300 bopd were shut-in at the end
 of June while drilling adjacent wells and as reported earlier another
 200 bopd were shut-in due to liner re-entry issues during the quarter.

Thermal Program

The second steam cycle for well 5201 started on June 16th and 3000 cubic
 meters of cold water steam equivalent has been injected until the end
 of June.  It is anticipated that steaming operations will continue
 until approximately mid-July. The well will be shut-in for a brief soak
 period then placed on production.

Infrastructure and Remediation

Work is continuing on the water control program with 42 wellbore
 suspensions completed in the quarter. Two wells with mechanical damage
 have been repaired and are now on production. Further remediation of
 liner re-entry continues.

Block "F"
The second exploration drilling location in Block "F" is progressing
 with reviews of environmental and construction permits.  The timeline
 for drilling the well is late fourth quarter.

Updated Corporate Presentation

For additional information on this operational update, please see the
 July 2012 version of the Company's corporate presentation at www.bankerspetroleum.com.

Conference Call


The Management of Bankers will host a conference call on July 5, 2012 at
 7:00am MDT to discuss this Operations Update. Following Management's
 presentation, there will be a question and answer session for analysts
 and investors.


To participate in the conference call, please contact the conference
 operator ten minutes prior to the call at 1-888-231-8191 or
 1-647-427-7450. A live audio web cast of the conference call will also
 be available on Bankers website at www.bankerspetroleum.com or by entering the following URL into your web browser http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/detail/1003289/1083753. The web cast will be archived two hours after the presentation on the
 website, and posted on the website for 90 days. A replay of the call
 will be available until July 19, 2012 by dialing 1-855-859-2056 or
 1-416-849-0833 and entering access code 98497298.