Morning Market Roundup: Corzine Charges, Apple Founding, Nokia Back From the Dead?

Here’s what’s important in the financial world this morning:

MF Global: Officials at CME Group have given the Justice Department documents that may prove former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine knew his firm commingled customer money with its operations in Europe. Corzine had been held in high esteem on Wall St. until recently. He is a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and governor of New Jersey. Corzine’s reputation has been battered by the bankruptcy of MF Global and charges that the firm misused customer money with capital MF Global traded.

To support the charges of what Corzine knew, CME Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said, “A CME auditor . . . participated in a phone call with senior MF Global employees wherein one employee indicated that Mr. Corzine knew about the loans that had been made from the customer segregated accounts.” Corzine’s problems may have only begun.

Oil Production: OPEC probably will keep oil production where it is now—at 30 million barrels a day. If so, this production will stay near three-year highs. OPEC likely will make the decision because of the faltering global recovery. The cartel understands that a sharp spike in crude prices could help drive the developed world back into a recession, a situation that would be unfavorable to demand levels—and OPEC’s sales — almost immediately.

Apple’s Papers: The documents signed to create Apple on April 1, 1976, sold at auction for $1.6 million. With the recent death of founder Steve Jobs and Apple’s huge success, it is amazing the price did not go higher. The papers were the beginning of Apple and were signed by Jobs and co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The $1.6 million is certainly a good investment. Apple, now the most valuable company in the world by market cap, has not lost the cult-like following it had when Jobs was alive. Anything tied to its earliest days likely will grow in value.

Lumia Tested: An effort to bring Nokia back from near death in the smartphone sector reached another milestone. Its Lumia 800 handset was tested in the laboratories of carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The Lumia will be the first widely distributed smartphone to run Microsoft Windows mobile OS. The alliance between Nokia and Microsoft calls for an investment of billions of dollars in marketing and R&D. The Lumia’s greatest advantage is that it will run on superfast 4G LTE networks in the U.S. These networks have attracted customers who want rapid speed for downloads and to view multimedia.

(24/7 Wall St./The Blaze)