Oppenheimer’s Meredith Whitney is currently the most followed bank and financial firm analysts on Wall Street. We don’t normally like to review analyst calls that are not fresh calls from the same…
According to The New York Times, JP Morgan (JPM) is in talks to raise it bid for Bear Stearns (BSC) from $2 to $10. Reuters writes that analysts now see a steep…
"The current financial crisis is the most serious since the second world war, and perhaps since the Great Depression."–The London Observer, March 23, 2008 Many investors find it hard to believe that…
Tonight we are going to get the highly awaited VISA, Inc. initial public offering. This one has been on the books since November 2007 and we have previously noted that this was…
With Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) shares off from $55.55 to under $19 and concerns that it cannot weather another round of write-downs which may be coming for subprime paper, credit card debt, and…
Private equity firms and hedge funds often make what seem to rather odd investments. But the one thing you can count on is that they both want to make money, even if…
The Federal Reserve has just made an expansion of its securities lending program to add much more liquidity to the banking system, but the difference here is that this goes above and…
According to Reuters, gas price are at $3.20 a gallon and could rise another $.20 to $.30 in the next month. Reuters writes that Chevron will develop two major projectsw in Asia.…
The FBI is looking into whether Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) committed securities fraud by making false statements about the mortgage bank’s financial position. The Wall Street Journal writes that a "potential issue facing…
Douglas A. McIntyre The short interest on the NYSE hit an all-time record for the period ending February 29. Figures by company compare to shares sold short on Ferbruary 15. Financial firms had significant increases…
A number of the large financial stocks took news of a write-down at UBS (NYSE: UBS), debt problems at Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and downgrades of Thornburg (NYSE: TMA) hard. Hitting 52-week…
Several brands which were extremely powerful during the last few decades are about to disappear. Many of them no longer drive big sales. Some are a part of companies that are in…
Short interest in companies traded on the NYSE increased for a number of financial firms based on positions as of February 15. The data compares to numbers on January 31 Shares sold…
The US Treasury is encouraging several large banks, lead by Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) to freeze foreclosures for 30 days while they sort out which homeowners should get restructured…
It’s been a while since we have seen any serious changes to the Dow Jones industrial Averages components, with 2004 being the last change and 1999 before that. This morning there are…
