VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Morgan Stanley reported a big miss in the third quarter profit as a result of a decline in their trading and private equity business. Although they have shifted their focus on business segment with less risk, global economic slowdown has hit Morgan Stanley and other US banks this quarter.

Citigroup announced that the company will cut down on block trading businesses as one of the bank's strategy to protect the firm from any losses, especially with current market uncertainty. The bank also plans to avoid its client from big losses as the trading could give a high return but at the same time, the client could risk losing more than they invested when the market turns south.

The major banks from the US have exposure to the debt of ailing commodity giant Glencore Plc. Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have reportedly lent $350million apiece to Glencore. North American banks contributed 20percent of the total loan exposure of Glencore. The ongoing slump in commodities market adversely impacted the Swiss-based Glencore's performance. This indicates potential alarming situation for the American banks if embattled Glencore slips into a liquidity crisis. Glencore is engaged in commodity trading and mining activities.

Goldman Sachs is racing ahead of its rivals in the global investment banking segment by revenues and fees in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) activity. Goldman Sachs' performance in 2015 so far exceeded while its competitors are not even close to it. With a market share of 12.3 percent, Goldman Sachs recorded $2billion revenues till date, while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are left with less than nine percent market share in the M&A space. The mergers and acquisitions activity this year so far was a robust period for Goldman Sachs.

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were the top-three beneficiaries in equity trading revenues during the second quarter of 2015.

The gold price drop last week showed its lowest since 2010 and the yellow metal is poised for further fall likely to record biggest monthly drop in the past two years.

U.S. mutual funds are placing bigger bets on privately held companies to get a head start finding the next IPO superstar, a strategy that has yielded some dramatic payoffs and flameouts.

Crude oil prices dropped on Monday as the dollar rose and on expectations that OPEC production would remain high, stoking worries of oversupply despite declining U.S. rig operations.

Castleton Commodities International will buy Morgan Stanley's (MS.N) physical oil business, vaulting the Connecticut-based merchant into the big leagues of global crude and fuel traders.

Global investment banks are scrambling to get a piece of the action from India's booming technology start-ups, having missed out on the initial flurry of deal-making to their better-connected but much smaller domestic rivals.

Agrochemicals firm Syngenta on Friday rejected a $45 billion takeover offer from Monsanto, saying the offer undervalued the Swiss firm and did not fully take into account regulatory risks.

BHP Billiton's shareholders are expected to approve the biggest ever spin-off in the mining industry on Wednesday, seeking to wring more value out of a string of long-neglected aluminum, manganese, silver and nickel assets.

XPO Logistics Inc (XPO.N) has agreed to buy France's Norbert Dentressangle SA (GNDP.PA) for $3.53 billion, including debt, in a deal it says will make it one of the top 10 logistics company in the world.

The dollar steadied in the lower half of an increasingly intransigent range on Monday, after sliding late last week following another round of disappointing U.S. economic data.

If running a global bank is complicated, cutting one back is even more difficult. Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) faces a long and costly battle, analysts say, to sell Postbank (DPBGn.DE) and pare investment banking, the new strategic goals it outlined late on Friday.