An LME dragon dance with David Beckham

The great and the good flocked to Hong Kong this week for the first LME Week Asia since the metals bourse was acquired by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing.

The occasion was marked unconventionally, with HKEx chief executive Charles Li dressing up as football legend David Beckham before partaking in a traditional Chinese dragon dance with outgoing London Metal Exchange chief Martin Abbott. Who knew metals could be so fun?

But beyond the glitz and glamour there was also some discussion about the future of the partnership between the two bourses.

With the costumes now firmly stowed and discussions beginning on how Hong Kong can raise its game even higher next year (Alex Ferguson maybe?), Financial News takes stock of where plans are at in the post-HKEx LME era.

KKR’s Genesis Care targets US debt market

Yet another private equity-backed Australian company is tapping the US debt market.

Following successful debt issues by Gresham Private Equity-owned Barminco and Pacific Equity Partners-owned cinema operator Hoyts Group last month, a KKR-owned healthcare business, Genesis Care, has launched a refinancing of its own.

Pickup in hiring points to U.S. economic resilience

(Reuters) - U.S. employers stepped up hiring a bit in May in a show of economic resilience that suggests the Federal Reserve could begin to scale back its monetary stimulus later this year.

The United States added 175,000 jobs last month after adding only 149,000 in April, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The pick up in hiring came despite tax hikes and sweeping budget cuts earlier in the year. The unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a point to 7.6 percent, which economists called encouraging because more Americans were began to hunt for jobs.