Thursday's Headlines: Glencore IPO gives Wall Street a run for its money

For old-school commodities trading giants Goldman and Morgan Stanley, the Glencore IPO represents a nightmare come true: the rise of unregulated rivals. Businessweek explores the significance of the offering to mainstay Wall Street firms in the face of headlines that the Swiss firm has hit London's FTSE 100 list of most valuable stocks this month, and the CEO's stake is estimated at about $10 billion.

After all, the old firms are subject to increasingly harsh regulation, while Glencore "focuses on physically moving commodities around the world, faces no limits on leverage, proprietary trading or compensation," says the article, which goes on to quote one trader's confession of regret for not taking a job at Glencore: "I turned them down because I thought I could make more at a hedge fund," said a trader at a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. "That turned out to be a mistake."

Other news:

UBS settles federal and state charges of rigging bids in a municipal bond derivatives market. [NY Times]

JPMorgan Promotes 132 To Investment Bank Managing Directors [Dealbreaker]

Brazilian steel giant Gerdau chose three Brazilian banks to manage a $3.5 billion share, excluding previous partners JPMorgan Chase and Citi. [Bloomberg]

Prudential's Q1 profit slumped 13% as derivatives widened amid an increase in interest rates. [Bloomberg]

MetLife's Q1 profit climbed 20% on international revenue and investment income after buying an AIG unit. [Bloomberg]

Lloyds, BBVA and Société Générale reported Q1 earnings below expectations, while ING provided a bright spot. [NY Times]

Deutsche maintained its top rank of the world's largest currency-trading banks for the seventh consecutive year, while Barclay's bumped UBS out of second place. [WSJ]

Portfolio manager turnover at Fidelity Investments is higher than at its peers and may be a red flag about how things are going at the firm.[Investment News]

Companies and long-term investors that used fast-trading, computer-driven strategies have curtailed trading. [WSJ]