At one point Merrill Lynch (MER) was up to $22.68 because of Bank of America’s (BAC) buyout offer of $50 billion. Merrill closed at $17.05 on Friday. Wall St. is now so afraid for…
Lehman (LEH) is bankrupt. Its stock plunged to $.15 from $67.73. AIG (AIG) fears that it will be the next to fail. It drops to $3.50 from a 52-week high of $70.13. Axcelis Technologies’…
This week seems to be unprecedented for the financial powerhouses and bulge bracket brokerage firms. While Merrill Lynch had to throw in the towel and become a Bank of America subsidiary, Lehman Brothers is…
Covering financial stocks on a day like today is sort of like watching the Chinese ping pong championship. It’s all action, happens faster than most can see, and no one really knows who the…
AIG (AIG) plans to sell its auto insurance unit, annuity operations, and aircraft leasing division. It sounds a lot like Lehman’s (LEH) plan to spin-off its commercial real estate pool and sell a majority…
We won’t bother telling you the news today that caused the market tank before the open. The brokerage failure of Lehman and the buyout of Merrill Lynch causing Bank of America stock to drop…
The effects of Hurricane Ike on the Gulf Coast are still being sorted out, but, so far reported infrastructure damage is light. That may change as producers, refiners, and pipeline operators begin more detailed…
There is some very hopeful data out there this morning on cancer survival. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) and Medarex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDX) have released updated survival data from three Phase II studies of…
A lot of traders think that GE’s (GE) financial results will be badly damaged by trouble at its GE Capital unit. The worry has the conglomerate’s stock trading at $24.70, below its 52-week low.…
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) could have taken an overly generous offer from Electronic Arts (ERTS). Instead, it held out for a higher price and hinted that it had other buyers. The ERTS bid was worth…
Covering financial stocks this morning looks a bit like an assassination happening live on television. Futures are being pulled sharply lower by the financial stocks melting down. We are going to skip the individual…
Central banks in Europe said they were ready to put billions of dollars into the financial markets to ease the current credit crisis. According to The New York Times, "The central bank said it…
When Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO John Thain signed the employment agreement that made him the S&P 500’s best-paid CEO of 2007, shares of Merrill were trading at more than $55 dollars per share. Now…
AIG (AIG) may lose over $20 billion for the trailing four quarters ending with the current period. It says the unprecedented credit crisis bought on by the failure of Lehman (LEH) requires it to…
A bail-out of Washinton Mutual (WM) could cost tax-payers another $24 billion. According to Bloomberg, Richard Bove, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., said the federal government may have to provide that much…