LUK Leucadia National Corp.

JEFFERIES GROUP

Earnings Increase On Fee, Trading Bump

Jefferies Group LLC posted profit and revenue increases in its fiscal fourth quarter, as advisory fees and trading boosted results. The investment-bank unit of Leucadia National Corp. reported a profit of $87.2 million, up from $20 million in the year ago period. Net revenue, which factors out interest expenses, rose 13%, to $741.8 million.

The company said record advisory fees and an "increasingly active" environment for new stock and bond issuance helped results in the quarter. Investment-banking revenue rose 11%.

The company also cited solid performance in equities and significant improvement in fixed income. Trading revenue more than doubled to $325.4 million.

--Austen Hufford

CFTC

Trader Settles 'Spoofing' Claims

WASHINGTON -- A Chicago futures trader and his firm agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle claims that he manipulated prices through a bluffing tactic known as "spoofing."

Igor Oystacher, head of proprietary trading firm 3Red Trading LLC, consented to having his trading monitored by an independent party for three years, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He didn't admit or deny the conduct.

The CFTC accused Mr. Oystacher of spoofing markets on 51 trading days between December 2011 and January 2014 in a bid to artificially move the prices of futures contracts for copper, crude oil, natural gas, the CBOE Volatility Index and the e-mini S&P 500.

"We are pleased to have reached a consensual settlement," said a spokesman for 3Red.

Aitan Goelman, the CFTC's director of enforcement, said the order "sends a strong message to the financial markets."

--Dave Michaels

SEALAND SECURITIES

Regulator Probes Bond Businesses

China's securities regulator has opened an inspection of the bond-related businesses of Sealand Securities Co., whose woes have combined with broader worries about the country's surging debt levels to help fuel a rout in the bond market.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission initiated the inspection at the brokerage firm's offices last Thursday, Sealand said in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The company said it would cooperate with the probe.

At issue is whether two former Sealand employees engaged in bond transactions using a forged version of the company's official seal and whether the brokerage will be responsible for covering any losses incurred from such deals.

The transactions in question are suspected to have been entrusted agreements, a prevalent practice among Chinese securities firms in which a third party, such as another brokerage or a bank, temporarily holds bond assets, according to traders and analysts. The deals allow brokerages to circumvent existing rules to obtain higher leverage, a driver of rising bond prices in the past two years, the traders and analysts said.

The brokerage said last week that it didn't authorize the two former employees to conduct the transactions. Phone calls to the brokerage went unanswered Tuesday.

--Chao Deng

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2016 02:48 ET (07:48 GMT)

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