Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE) is set to report earnings after the close today. What in interesting is that we have seen four downgrades in the recent trading days based on valuation, and this stock…
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is trading off over 5% today. Wachovia (NYSE: WB) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) are down over 3%. Is it any wonder? S&P today said that its potential downgrade of Ambac…
Trading in CDOs is just not happening. According to Bloomberg "buying and selling of collateralized debt obligations based on mortgage bonds, high-yield loans or preferred shares has ground to a near-halt." We have…
Moody’s (MCO) wants to replace its old ratings system, which used letter grades, with a new one which will use numbers. It also wants to put "warning labels" on securities like CDOs because they…
With all those subprime write-downs hitting bank and investment house balance sheets it would be nice for them to off-load some of the LBO debt they have taken on over the last year. No…
On Tuesday, we’ll get to see earnings out of Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ:RATE). The estimates from First Call for the internet-based consumer banking company are $0.39 EPS on $26.84 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscal…
Transmeta Corp. (NASDAQ: TMTA) may be an interesting stock now. The company scored a major win with a legal settlement/victory last year over Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). Now Transmeta issued a statement that it has…
Ambac Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: ABK) and MBIA (NYSE: MBI) are both trading higher in pre-market trading this morning. CNBC squeezed in a report after covering the Yahoo!-Microsoft that there are eight banks that…
A hedge fund is claiming that Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) is selling itself too cheaply to Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). SRM GLOBAL FUND GENERAL PARTNER LIMITED has filed a Schedule 13D. SRM now…
Losses from securities linked to subprime mortgages may exceed $265 billion as regional U.S. banks, credit unions and overseas financial institutions write down the value of their holdings, according to Standard & Poor’s writes…
Wall St. thought things would be bad when MBIA (MBI) reported earnings, but they were worse. The largest bond insurer posted a loss of $2.3 billion, or $18.61 a share, compared with profit of…
There are some SEC filings out of online brokerage firm E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) that shows quite a bit of insider transactions that took place on January 29. These were all insider acquisitions…
Ambac (ABK) and MBIA (MBI) figured they could improve their earnings by putting money into swaps and derivative instruments. For years they were not allowed to. They had to watch big banks and investment…
As the selling of bank shares has fallen off, Wall St. has begun to believe that the worst of the global banking crisis is in the rear view mirror. Not likely. If investors are…
Bank of America (BAC) says that its deal for buying mortgage-bank Countrywide (CFC) is on track despite the M&A target’s big fouth quarter loss. “Everything is a `go’ to complete this transaction,” Bank of…