RSS Updates
Email Updates
John Thain of Merrill Lynch (MER) and John Mack of Morgan Stanley (MS) looked like men in hostage video tapes with guns held to their heads as they were forced to forgo their 2008 bonuses. It made for good theater. It made shareholders and regulators feel that they have leverage. But, over the long haul it sabotaged the financial industry.
Posts for Ticker ‘MER’
Cutting Wall St. Bonuses Doesn’t Work (MS)(MER)
Media Digest 12/9/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, The Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11.
Reuters reports that Congress and The White House are close to a bill that would give Detroit modest loans.
Reuters reports that Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) execs were warned years ago about the risks of some of their lending.
Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO Will Seek No Bonus, Perhaps Board Will Reward Him Anyway
After it was reported that Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO John Thain was after a $10 million bonus he was viciously attacked by everyone from the media to NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Late today, according to The Wall Street Journal, Thain’s people said he told the board he wanted nothing. Perhaps now the compensation committee at the big broker can be magnanimous and give him a few million dollars anyway.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Merrill Lynch’s (MER) Thain: The Only Man On Wall St. Who Earned His Pay
The board of Merrill Lynch (MER) is fighting with CEO John Thain over whether he should get a bonus. The board will probably win. It is the board. And, since Merrill has been sold to Bank of America (BAC), members don’t have to look Thain in the eye any more. They can take their board fees and pay for a trip to the Netherlands Antilles.
The board is wrong about Thain. He wants $10 million and he earned it.
Media Digest 12/5/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, car company executives went before Congress and pleaded for billions of dollars.
Reuters reports that governments are bracing for a long crisis ahead.
Reuters reports that Paulson says the financial bailout still faces hurdles.
Reuters writes that oil is steady below $44.
Media Digest 12/2/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, JP Morgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), and Merrill Lynch (MER) will cut a total of almost 20,000 jobs.
Reuters reports that Boeing (BA) will sign a new deal with machinists.
Reuters reports that the auto sales slump is expected to continue through November
Media Digest 11/27/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, markets in Asia and Europe ross about 2%
Reuters reports that the downturn in the Chinese economy deepened.
Reuters reports that BHP Billiton (BHP) was gloomy about its prospects and defended it bid for Rio Tinto (RTP)
Why Banks Lie: Because They Don’t Have An Answer (C)(BAC)(WFC)(JPM)(MS)(GS)(MER)
It was just this last summer that the heads of Merrill Lynch (MER), Lehman, and Morgan Stanley (MS) said the financial crisis had peaked and its energy was dissipating.
It would be hard to find a bank or brokerage house that has not missed its forecasts in one or more of the last four quarters. Securities analysts’ projections for next year are useless.
Citigroup (C): Vikram Pandit’s Grand Strategy Of Cutting People
Perhaps it is a remarkable failure of imagination or just animal panic. A day after Citigroup (C) hit a multi-year low and spent time below $10, CEO Vikram Pandit’s answer was to buy a few crummy shares in the bank and prepare to fire another 10,000 poor souls. He also decided to raise rates on credit cards, which would seem to undermine the federal government’s programs to help consumers during a liquidity crisis.
Media Digest 11/14/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, concerns about the global economy are growing as the G20 nations are meeting.
Reuters says that Congress challenged banks on how they would use bailout funds.
Reuters reports that companies including Honda (HMC), Home Depot (HD), and Dow Chemical (DOW) want the Fed to buy their commercial paper.
Citigroup (C): Firing Vikram Pandit
Citigroup’s (C) CEO Vikram Pandit has cemented his reputation as the worst CEO of the new breed of men who replaced the remarkably careless and callous executives who ran Citi, Merrill Lynch (MER), AIG (AIG), and other financial colossi during the first part of the decade.
That makes the news that Citigroup is considering sacking its chairman Sir Win Bischoff all the more ironic. Bischoff is, by most accounts, an astonishingly bland man who helped the financial firm through some of its darkest days. His only fault is that he voted to put Pandit into his job. But, the rest of the bank’s board shares that distinction.
Goldman Sachs (GS) Tells Wall St. To Mind Its Own Business
Rumors that Goldman Sachs (GS) will have to raise more money have helped push its stock from $123 less than a month ago to $71 yesterday.
Wall St. wants to believe that the money which the venerable trading house got from Warren "Warrant" Buffett and the US Treasury was not enough. Goldman is in trouble, they say, like Morgan Stanley (MS) and Merrill Lynch (MER) before it.
Media Digest 11/12/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, Chrysler is running out of time and options for staying in business.
Reuters reports that American Express (AXP) is seeking $3.5 billion from the government bailout fund.
Reuters writes that Goldman Sachs (GS) intends to operate as it has in the past even though it is now a bank holding company.
Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO Slips Blame By Calling Current Environment Similar To Depression
John Thain of Merrill Lynch (MER) spent most of his time at the financial firm saying that the markets would improve as would the fortunes of his company. He was consistently and remarkably wrong.
More recently, he has turned to comparing the current economic situation to the early stages of The Great Depression.
Is Citigroup (C) The Exception Or The Rule?
Goldman Sachs repeated its opinion that Citigroup (C) is a "sell" and probably would not make a cent until late in 2009. Goldman claims that credit markets are too tough for Citi to make a decent run at getting its write-offs behind it.
Citi’s balance sheet may not look entirely different from those of several other money center banks and brokerage firms. Most made the same risky investment in mortgage-related paper and LBO loans. Most face sharp drop-offs in their underwriting and M&A businesses.
Media Digest 10/21/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, Japan markets were higher on a broad government bailout plan.
Reuters reports that Merrill Lynch (MER) will cut 500 trading jobs.
Reuters writes that low retailer prices and competition are cutting Apple (AAPL) iPhone prices and AT&T (T) margins.
Reuters reports that Bernanke showed support for a second US economic stimulus package.
Armed Robbery At The Fed: Bank Problems Are Getting Worse (C)(MER)(JPM)(UBS)
Bank earnings were hit hard this week. Even if the results at Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), and JP Morgan (JPM) did not drive the credit system into insolvency, each company had forecasts which were somewhere between lukewarm and terrible.
Some analysts still cling to the childish notion that the $700 billion from the Treasury will save the day. The $60 billion that the Swiss government took off the books of UBS (UBS) falls into the same category. Financial socialism may work, but it is taking its own sweet time.
Google (GOOG) Earnings: A Perfect Proxy For Small Business
Google’s (GOOG) earnings are ancient news now. The search company did much better than expected. The economy did not bring it down like a rhino killed off in the wild.
The company’s Q3 EPS of $4.92 was above Wall St’s forecast of $4.75. Revenue moved up a remarkable 31% to $5.54 billion. The number that almost no one expected was that the rate at which customers clicked on Google ad search links went up. Consumers are still interested in buying things and they find them mixed within the Google search results.
Financial Stocks: No One Believes Paulson (UBS)(MER)(C)(BAC)(MS)(WFC)(JPM)
Henry Paulson seems like a very large and old Eagle Scout. He would never mislead, at least not on purpose.
He gave the impression as he announced that Treasury would dump $250 billion into nine financial companies that it would stop the hemorrhaging of deposits from the banking system by putting a lot of money into the industry’s pockets. His actions, he thought, made it keenly clear that capital was not an issue. Banks would have plenty on hand, even if they experienced substantial losses due to mortgage derivatives and a mind-boggling slowdown in the economy.
Merrill Lynch’s (MER) Bad Medicine
A lot of people on Wall St. were worried about the future of Merrill Lynch (MER) and were glad when Bank of America (BAC) bought it. Now, Bank of America may be unhappy.
Merrill lost $5.2 billion in the third quarter. The brokerage firm said that it had a loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2008 of $5.1 billion, or $5.56 per diluted share, compared with a net loss from continuing operations of $2.4 billion, or $2.99 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2007.
-
Today’s top tickerspy Indexes Regional Bank Sto... +1.4% Hospital Stocks +1.1% Rubber and Plasti... +1.0% Casino Stocks +1.0% Hotel Stocks +0.9% 
-
-
- House Call: To Buy or Not to Buy
- UPDATE: UK Darling: No Spending Giveaways In Upcoming Budget
- CORRECT: Thomas Weisel Sets Aside $4 Million For Auction-Rate Fine -Filing
- China Premier: To Tackle Drought In SW China, Keep Prices Stable
- UK Darling: UK Voters Would Not Welcome Budget Election Giveaways
- Possible Bomb Found On Passenger Plane In India--Report
-
-
- paidContent - Is FiLife Running On Borrowed Time?
- paidContent - Wireless Carriers Bicker Over Size Of Spectrum Holdings
- paidContent - FCC May Open Public-Safety Spectrum Block For Commercial Purposes
- paidContent - Right On Schedule, MediaNews' Parent Exits Chapter 11
- paidContent - Welcome To Microsoft Office. Would You Like A Microblog With Your Order?
- paidContent - March Madness: CBSSports.com Says It Served 3.4 Million Live Hours On Day One
-
©2010 24/7 Wall St.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Designed by SlipFire LLC.
