The FT is reporting that Merrill Lynch (MER) and Citigroup (C) are looking at partial IPOs of the retail brokerage units. According to the newspaper "brokerage businesses trade on much higher earnings…
Losses related to record U.S. home foreclosures using a “back-of-the-envelope” calculation may be as high as $400 billion for financial companies, Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman (GS) in New York wrote…
The New York Post has reported that NYSE (NYSE:NYX) CEO John Thain will be made the new head of Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER). The announcement is expeted after the close. This also follows…
According to Reuters, executives at Ford (F) say that they see a tough US market and will cut production as necessary. Reuters reports that Northern Rock received an injunction from the publication…
Goldman Sachs (GS) is trading up 6% on word from its CEO that the firm "does not expect to take any significant asset write-downs," according to Reuters. There have been rumors that…
The board at Citigroup (C) is telling CEO candidates that they want with the bank, short of burining it to the ground. A new chief can sell off units, almost at will,…
Douglas A. McIntyre According to Reuters, BHP Billiton (BHP) will not sell its petroleum division, as had been rumored, to finance a bid for Rio Tinto (RTP). Reuters writes that most of the Hershey (HSY)…
At first, the offer by mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP) to buy Rio Tinto (RTP) looked improbable. The $140 billion price seemed quite rich and offering an all stock arrangement might not…
Citigroup (C), JP Morgan (JPM), and Bank of America (BAC) are closer to setting up their "super fund" to supply short-term loans to structured investment vehicles, pools of money which are made…
Some on Wall St. are concerned that, as the price of oil reaches closer to $100, Big Oil will not do as well as the rising price of crude would indicate. That…
Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) is seeing shares trade much lower after net income fell by more than half in the first nine months now that SEC filings for Q1, Q2 and Q3 have…
Moody’s has begun to downgrade the debt in a number of the structured investment vehicles that own huge pools of mortgage-related securities. According to The Wall Street Journal "in its report, Moody’s…
According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley (MS) has suffered a $3.7 billion loss from its mortgage portfolio, Reuters writes that shares in Cisco (CSCO) were driven down on concerns that orders from the…
Washington Mutual (WM) Mortgage company in bad environment. Down to $19.72 from 52-week high of $46.38. Capital One Financial (COF) Big financial loss. Down to $50.05 from 52-week high of $83.84. Fannie…
The FT says that the "super-fund" to bail out financial instruments tied to mortgage-backed securities may be dead. Speaking about the fund to the paper: “As far as we can see, it…
Douglas A. McIntyre