Egan-Jones Ratings is just the latest ratings agency to hit the PIIGS today. The ratings agency lowered the Kingdom of Spain’s ratings down to “CCC+” from “B.” What is perhaps more important is that the…
Yields on 10-year Spanish bonds rose 27 basis points today to 6.80%, an all-time high. The country’s main stock exchange, the IBEX fell 1% and the Stoxx Europe 600 fell -0.2% on the news,…
TrimTabs and BarclayHedge report each month about hedge fund inflows and outflows, and if you have been watching the tape you shouldn’t be surprised that the trend is toward ‘outflows’ of late. What is…
Private equity’s newest public company is none other than the giant Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ: CG). Now that 40 calendar days have passed those analysts who work at the underwriting firms are free to…
In remarks at a conference with Asian Banking leaders, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said that though the global banking system is in better shape than it was three years ago,…
When this weekend’s announcement came out of a $125 billion bailout for Spain to prop up its troubled banks, most would have just assumed that this meant the ‘risk-on’ trade was due for blast-off on…
The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) will make some changes to its Nasdaq Q-50 index next Monday, June 18th. The index will add Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI), Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT), IAC/InterActiveCorp…
Fitch Ratings has had many reports today, but perhaps the largest call is a downgrade of Spain to “BBB” that has added some pressure to the Euro. Today’s downgrade took Spain’s Long-term foreign and local currency…
Fitch has already warned today that if the United States dos not get a credible fiscal plan after the elections that it would likely downgrade the United States’ sovereign credit rating. Now comes a…
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is testifying before the Joint Economic Committee at Congress today and Mr. Bernanke is not exactly committing to any further quantitative easing or QE3. He did, however, mention that…
SNL Financial has released its list of largest banks by assets and deposits. The list is as you might expect with the large money center banks being ranked, but where some of the surprises come…
The Bank of England (BOE) followed the steps of the European Central Bank (ECB) earlier this week. This morning came news that England’s overnight and short-term rates would be kept static at 0.50%. While…
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has announced an interest rate cut of 0.25% on both its lending and deposit rates. The new rates, which take effect tomorrow, will lower the one-year…
Debt-laden natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) is reportedly in discussions with private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) regarding a sale of Chesapeake’s stake in Chesapeake Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: CHKM)…
Moody’s has telegraphed a banking sector review for quite some time, and it has actually been ongoing and the ‘bad news’ should be out very soon. We skipped many of the smaller incidents, but…