A Manhattan federal judge said on Thursday that investors may pursue a lawsuit accusing 12 major banks of violating antitrust law by fixing prices and restraining competition in the roughly $21 trillion market for credit default swaps. While dismissing part of the case, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said investors may press claims that the defendants' Sherman Act violations caused them to pay unfair prices on CDS trades from the autumn of 2008 through the end of 2013, even as improved liquidity should have driven costs down. "The complaint provides a chronology of behavior that would probably not result from chance, coincidence, independent responses to common stimuli, or mere interdependence," Cote said. The defendants include Bank of America Corp BAC.N, Barclays Plc BARC.L, BNP Paribas SA BNPP.PA, Citigroup Inc C.N, Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.VX, Deutsche Bank AG DBKGn.DE, Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N, HSBC Holdings Plc HSBA.L, JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N, Morgan Stanley MS.N,
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