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Citigroup Inc. (C) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) increased gross exposures to French banks in the year’s first half before the European nation’s financial stocks plunged amid perceived dependence on short-term funding.
Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. lender, boosted gross “cross-border outstandings” with French banks 40 percent to $15.7 billion from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to the company’s quarterly report. Goldman Sachs increased claims by 31 percent to $38.5 billion in the first half, its report shows. The filings don’t disclose collateral the banks received or hedges, which curb potential losses on existing bets.
Credit Agricole SA (ACA) and Societe Generale SA, France’s second- and third-biggest banks, led a rout in the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index since the end of June amid concern that some of the region’s lenders may struggle to maintain funding during government-debt crises. Legg Mason Inc.’s bond unit said its U.S. money-market funds won’t buy new debt from French banks to shield themselves from the perceived risk.
Full http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-14/citigroup-goldman-sachs-boosted-ties-to-french-banks-as-rout-approached.html
Financials slide as short sales shift to U.S.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/citi-banks-lead-financials-higher-for-second-day-2011-08-12
Morgan Stanley surrenders more than 7%, J.P. Morgan falls 2% Stories You Might Like
Aug. 12, 2011, 4:36 p.m. EDT
By Sue Chang and Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Financial shares closed down more than 1% in choppy trade on Friday as a short-sale ban in Europe prompted speculators to look for bank shares in the U.S. to short. For the week, the sector shed 5%, leading the stock market’s losses.
Financials seesawed all day, initially gaining in the wake of a rally in European banks’ shares after France, Italy, Spain and Belgium banned short selling. Read more about Europe’s short-sale ban.
However, the sector failed to defend gains as Morgan Stanley /quotes/zigman/182639/quotes/nls/ms MS +0.77% sank more than 7% and Regions Financial Corp. /quotes/zigman/351634/quotes/nls/rf RF +0.23% and KeyCorp /quotes/zigman/136057/quotes/nls/key KEY +1.09% both lost more than 4%.
“With short-sale opportunities in Europe gone, the desire is to find targets in the U.S.,” said Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rochdale Research.
Bove believes Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were being specifically targeted.
Goldman Sachs /quotes/zigman/188479/quotes/nls/gs GS +0.11% and Citigroup /quotes/zigman/5065548/quotes/nls/c C +0.20% each fell more than 1%, Bank of New York Mellon /quotes/zigman/445224/quotes/nls/bk BK +0.80% slumped 2.5%, and J.P. Morgan Chase /quotes/zigman/272085/quotes/nls/jpm JPM +0.31% slid 2.1%.
Both American International Group /quotes/zigman/557836/quotes/nls/aig AIG -0.13% and Bank of America /quotes/zigman/190927/quotes/nls/bac BAC -0.83% , which had traded higher earlier, closed in the red.
“There is a complete lack of logic as far as bank stocks are concerned. Investors want to get out of bank stocks because it is too risky but then why are they depositing their money there?” said Bove.
Click to Play Roubini: Invest in cashIn a clip from a longer interview with WSJ's Simon Constable, Nouriel Roubini explains his investment strategy: invest in cash. "Better to be safe than sorry," he says.
For the week, Morgan Stanley was down 16%, Goldman Sachs shed 7%, Citigroup lost 11% and J.P. Morgan tumbled 14%.
There were a few bright spots in the sector with a handful of shares bucking the trend. Moody’s Corp. /quotes/zigman/267181/quotes/nls/mco MCO +1.50% rose 1.5%, Charles Schwab /quotes/zigman/240465/quotes/nls/schw SCHW +1.24% gained 1.2% and Equifax Inc. /quotes/zigman/226102/quotes/nls/efx EFX +1.04% climbed 1%.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF /quotes/zigman/246222/quotes/nls/xlf XLF -0.16% , which tracks financial stocks in the S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX +0.53% , slipped 0.7% and the KBW Bank Index ETF /quotes/zigman/478226/quotes/nls/kbe KBE -0.27% fell 1.8%.
Morgan Stanley Stock Downgraded (MS)
By TheStreet Wire 08/12/11 - 07:01 AM EDT
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to sell. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, generally weak debt management, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.
Highlights from the ratings report include:
¦ Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 39.81%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 147.50% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry.
¦ The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Capital Markets industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 37.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $1,903.00 million to $1,193.00 million.
¦ The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 7.73 and currently higher than the industry average, implying that there is very poor management of debt levels within the company.
¦ Current return on equity is lower than its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of weakness within the company. Compared to other companies in the Capital Markets industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, MORGAN STANLEY underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500.
¦ Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$3,852.00 million or 146.49% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower.
Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals worldwide. It operates in three segments: Institutional Securities, Global Wealth Management Group, and Asset Management. The company has a P/E ratio of 24.6, below the average financial services industry P/E ratio of 34.4 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Morgan Stanley has a market cap of $35.1 billion and is part of the financial sector and financial services industry. Shares are down 39.5% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.
Remember this board...
(Sean Egan)Gloomy Forecast for Europe's Banks
By JACK WILLOUGHBY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2011
A credit rater with a strong track record sees sovereign-debt defaults and bank woes in the Old World's future.
Time and again, Sean Egan and his team at Philadelphia-based Egan-Jones Ratings have made important calls months ahead of their better-known rivals. The firm has won grudging respect for its work on Ambac, CIT, Countrywide, General Motors, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers, MBIA and New Century, all of which encountered big problems after getting poor credit grades from Egan-Jones.
The firm is a Securities and Exchange Commission-regulated rating agency, whose customers pay for the research and the rating. In contrast, Moody's, S&P and Fitch are paid by the issuers of the securities that they are rating.
Sean Egan, co-founder and president, has a stunning prediction for Barron's readers: Forget about things getting better in Europe, he says; they will actually get worse. And who might be one of the patsies in all this? The American taxpayer, who could feasibly be stung as the Federal Reserve aids an ailing European Central Bank already depleted by too many bailouts. The big question: Will Europe, worn down by bailout after bailout, finally be forced to bail out the bailer—the ECB?
Barron's: We've been moving from crisis to crisis—first Ireland, then Greece and now Italy. What's going on?
Egan: Think of it as a bunch of political problems that are being driven by one central economic problem—the inability of Europe and its banks to handle and contain the damage sustained in the 2008 financial crisis. The resolution of this sovereign-debt crisis will remake the face of Europe over the next few years. This is going to be one truly big story—on the scale of the instability of Germany's Weimar Republic after World War I—and I can't see the political will or politicians with enough clout to forge a broad consensus. Everything seems to point toward instability, leaving democracies open to strong-arm government.
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Dave Moser for Barron's
"The resolution of this sovereign-debt crisis will remake the face of Europe over the next few years." —Sean Egan
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Look at the constant press battles over what to do about Greece, and the coverage of things like the riots in the streets. These battles, I contend, simply wear down the very will of the European public to deal with the root causes of its problems by focusing its attention on smaller, though volatile, issues.
What is it that people don't get?
The thing most people miss is how little control governments have over this economic problem. The headlines would indicate that the governments are in control. The market, however, drives them. The sovereign-debt problem and the European bank-stability dilemma are intertwined. Any default will lead to write-downs that will show the European banks as actual or near zombies—the walking dead, with big impending losses and little capital.
Painful as it will be, the situation must be addressed time and again when peripheral sovereigns like Greece, Ireland and Portugal default on their debt—as they inevitably must. The truth is, the debt holders will only receive a token amount of repayment—between 10% and 22% of face value. And that's nowhere near the level of recovery people are talking about now.
Look at Greece. Greece will likely not be good for any of its debt. The economy is shrinking. How can anyone think of adding more debt? A company that's losing money can't easily qualify for additional debt, yet officials keep talking about increasing Greece's burden. Greece is running a deficit. Also, it's going to be extremely difficult to sell Greece's assets in a timely fashion. Even so, with Greek 10-year rates in excess of 15%, Greece needs to solve its problems quickly, or face having many of its small businesses go under.
Is there any immediate solution?
You have to start from the possible. We believe that Greece can't reasonably support more than 40 billion euros [$56.7 billion] in taxes. That amounts to only 10% of the amount outstanding. That's why debt holders are likely to face a 90% haircut. And that's quite a different perspective than the 30% cut people talk about today. And, soon, Ireland and Portugal will find themselves in similar predicaments. And unless trends reverse, Spain, Italy and Belgium will follow. The write-downs on the coming defaults will make many European banks and insurance companies vulnerable, to say the least, with few if any mechanisms to rebuild capital. This weakness will eventually spread to the institution that supports the euro structure—the European Central Bank. It has lent its support to member-state banks taking deposits and loans from member banks in the euro zone's periphery.
What does the ECB's balance sheet look like?
On the asset side, in addition to €303 billion in assets, the ECB itself holds €113 billion in deposits of local banks and €150 billion in sovereign debt. The problem is that it has only €10 billion of equity, which would be eliminated by any reasonable write-down of the bank deposits or the sovereign debt. Little wonder that Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's head, has insisted that any bank bailout [won't] trigger charges for sovereign debt, which presumably would extend to the ECB. Reasonable investors would subscribe to the bank's needing an extra €90 billion in fresh capital. It can get that, but not quickly.
Where would the ECB find the capital?
Let's be clear, we are talking about Europe's central bank. Under normal operations, it can tap the central banks of members of the [European Union's] monetary system. It also presumably has swap lines with the Fed. In the worst case, it could print some currency, despite the current controls in place.
How much of a hit are U.S. taxpayers going to take for the euro chaos?
A definitive answer won't be known for years, but there will probably be several points of measurement. One is the U.S. contribution to the International Monetary Fund, which is being placed at risk with the various bailouts. Another is the swap lines provided to the ECB via the Fed in the event of some financial rupture. The third is the support provided to U.S. banks with direct and indirect exposure to Europe, including through credit-default swaps. That's difficult to estimate because of the opacity of the CDS market.
Explain the Fed swap lines.
All things being equal, the most likely source of support for the ECB is the U.S. via Ben Bernanke, who during the first signs of the crisis, ginned up more than $580 billion in dollar swaps in 2008 and 2009 with central banks around the world. These lines went out in a size and with a velocity never before seen in the Federal Reserve system, but were repaid. The swap lines have been extended through August 2012. The dollar-liquidity swap lines are with four major central banks—the ECB, The Bank of England, The Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada. The lines with the ECB are unlimited. The rationale was that there is no credit risk, because they are short-term, and the ECB was interposing itself between the sick European member banks and the Fed.
But consider the shape that the ECB is in, with less than 3% of capital underlying its growing array of bad assets. The European Central Bank's capital levels are getting perilously thin. There's nothing backing the ECB but the guarantees of the euro countries—many hard-pressed themselves.
Why have the major rating agencies been so slow at recognizing the depth of the problems in Europe?
The big rating agencies remain hampered by political blowback, and the conflict whereby the issuer still pays for the rating. It's been amazing how after several congressional hearings, scores of lawsuits, and colorful reports from Senator Carl Levin [the Michigan Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee] and Commissioner Phil Angelides [of the financial crisis committee], the essential conflict remains.
The issuer-pay ratings conflict has two pernicious effects. It makes the rating agencies slow to change, and too reactive when they do. Look at Europe. For months, the agencies did nothing on Portugal. Then, Moody's drops Portugal a whopping four ratings notches in one shot—from investment-grade to junk. That's ridiculously reactive, and it forces institutions to sell securities into an illiquid market. In December 2010, we at Egan-Jones had reduced Portugal's rating to the same level that Moody's issued only weeks ago.
We believe that you get the right results when the incentives align correctly. Look at the headlines. The EU actually says it regrets Moody's decision to cut the credit ratings of Ireland and Portugal. Moody's must listen, because the governments pay for the ratings.
What else do you see that others do not?
We believe that American investors are severely underestimating the scale of the European sovereign-debt crisis. They overestimate the amount of debt that Greece, Ireland and Portugal can realistically shoulder, given the sorry state of their economies.
Afraid of taking crippling write-downs, European bankers keep moving the goal posts, pretending everything is fine. They know that the situations in Ireland and Portugal are not significantly better than in Greece. The Irish Republic's debt is €200 billion, on top of which the government has guaranteed an additional €400 billion to support their banking system. Unfortunately, all this debt sits on top of a tax base that produces annual tax revenue of €34 billion.
Portugal's debt is €160 billion, while its tax-revenue base is €38 billion.
Can't the euro system pull together to get through its members' collective troubles?
I hope so, but I have my doubts. The EU is at a distinct disadvantage in this stage of the sovereign crisis, compared with the U.S. in 2008. Its decision-making requires huge amounts of diplomacy. Hank Paulson, when he was Secretary of the Treasury, could work up a bailout in three phone calls. Trichet has to make 20, and still wouldn't have a workable plan. The euro system is a monetary arrangement without a fiscal backbone.
And European banks are starting at a much lower capital base than the U.S. banks did in 2008; they're in worse shape. There's no steep yield curve to ease rebuilding capital. And finally the dollar, not the euro, is still the world's currency of choice. Even if they wanted to, the Europeans can't just print their way out of trouble like the U.S. has done. Big changes must come if the euro is going to survive. Ultimately, there's going to have to be an adjustment to the structure, whereby countries that violate fiscal controls are asked to leave, or fiscal authority must shift to Brussels. Right now, there are no checks and balances.
Are most of the European banks essentially zombies—the walking dead?
Using the simplest estimates for the European banks and applying them to current capital positions, we find most of these banks to be under water. They don't have enough capital to meet the expected losses from the peripheral countries.
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.Most worrisome are the U.K. banks, because of the size of their euro debt holdings, and their home countries' aversion to a possible second bailout. We've produced a table [at left] estimating the future impairment of future European and British banks. Lloyds Banking Group [ticker: LYG], Royal Bank of Scotland Group [RBS] and Barclays [BCS] stick out like sore thumbs. France has shown a willingness to backstop its banks, even though they have a sizeable exposure to places like Greece. Germany, which spent billions to take back East Germany, would be willing to support a troubled Deutsche Bank [DB].
Overall, we have a classic example of a liquidity problem that has morphed into a solvency problem. Technically, the International Monetary Fund should be the proper forum for resolving these international issues. But the IMF doesn't have the punch or the speed to compete with Ben Bernanke and his accommodating Federal Reserve System.
So we can expect the European issue to be in the headlines for months to come?
Absolutely. This a multifaceted problem that's destabilizing democracies and driving under businesses with loan-sharking rates. Look for the Greece situation to be replayed in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy. We're seeing the initial steps of the reordering of the banking system in Europe. Ultimately, it will result in the emergence of a handful of safe banks. Companies dependent upon bank funding are likely to face extreme pressure over the next couple of years. They are going to [get] squeezed real hard.
Investors should look for bank mergers, major asset sales and widespread company restructuring. The sovereign-debt crisis is probably the biggest credit event faced since the decline of the Weimar Republic. Forget about post-World War II. This is bigger.
Debt Ceiling Deadline Will Be Missed, Stop Investing And Stay Liquid, Bove Urges
Jul. 27 2011 - 2:18 pm
By HALAH TOURYALAI
Wall Street analyst Dick Bove is sounding the alarm on the implications of the debt ceiling stalemate.
He says there won’t be a resolution in the debt ceiling debate and the result will be catastrophic for the U.S. financial system.
Bove predicts that Congress won’t meet the August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling and that no plan that cuts $4 trillion from the deficit over 10 years will be approved. In an end-of-an-era type note to investors today Bove writes that there is a growing desire to test what will happen if the U.S. defaults on its debt next week.
“Maybe there is even desire to force the government to close down a number of its functions–to prioritze its actual needs. This would be done if the debt ceiling is not raised. It now makes more sense to test the unthinkable. Thus for the moment I would suggest suspending investing since all stocks are likely to fall,” he says.
That’s right. Bove is advising investors to stop doing what they’re doing and get as liquid as possible until the government works out its deficit problem. Who knows how long that will take considering Democrats and Republicans are fine tuning separate plans with little indication that either party will budge.
What kind of affect will this kind of behavior by the government have on investors? Bove says faith in the government to “do the right thing” is lost and that it may no longer make “sense to rely on the United States financial system to be the base of the global financial system.”
From Bove’s note:
A new safe haven is needed:
•Gold is not the answer. It is too illiquid and there is not enough of it.
•Swiss francs are not the answer because the government of Switzerland needs to stop the inflows to that nation to protect its economy.
•The Euro is not the answer because the problems in the United States are the same as those of Europe.
•The dollar is not the answer because the United States can no longer be counted upon to be fiscally or financially responsible.
Therefore, the quest is on to find a new global safe haven. Many options are likely to be experimented with until the new global financial configuration is arrived at. Investors must be attuned to how this new financial era will be shaped and invest accordingly. Right now, however, they must protect themselves by remaining liquid.
BCS Option Monster on that big put buy yesterday
Puts look for withdrawal in Barclays
Chris McKhann (chris.mckhann@optionmonster.com), On Wednesday July 27, 2011, 3:48 am EDT
Shares of Barclays are up from last week's two-year lows, but a huge put trade may be looking for them to take another dive.
BCS closed yesterday at $15.06, up 0.47 percent on the session. The U.K. bank's shares have been trending downward since reaching $21.69 in mid-February and hit $13.28 last Monday, their lowest price since May 2009.
Yesterday's volume of more than 13,000 options was twice the daily average in the name and was almost entirely in the September 11 puts. optionMONSTER's Depth Charge showed that 12,500 of those trade while there was no previous open interest at that strike. They were bought for $0.20, the ask price on a wide spread.
About seven minutes later a print of 100,000 shares hit. The block was the largest of the day by a factor of five and was bought for $15.1. Looking more closely the delta of those puts was 0.08, so the block of 100,000 shares would hedge the price sensitivity of the position very closely.
If the options and the shares were indeed traded by one player, the overall position is a long volatility play that could profit if shares move sharply higher or lower. (See our Education section)
Such a swing would be a bit surprising, given that the implied volatility at 51 percent is already just off 11-month highs from last week. In addition, the 30-day historical volatility is at 52-week highs, having climbed to 53 percent as it doubled in the last two months.
The bank is scheduled to report earnings results on Aug. 2.
UBS Slashes Costs as Profit Slides
By KATHARINA BART
ZURICH—UBS AG said Tuesday it will cut an undisclosed number of jobs as it slashes up to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.48 billion) in costs after second-quarter net profit collapsed by almost half.
UBS reported net profit fell to 1.02 billion francs for the three months ended June 30, from 2.01 billion francs a year earlier. Revenue slumped 22% to 7.17 billion francs, as income from fixed-income activities slid. Meanwhile, UBS's flagship private banking arm also suffered from the strong Swiss franc, which ate into revenue, profit and assets held in other currencies.
The Zurich-based bank joined the ranks of rivals in cutting costs as securities markets and client activity have been too weak to justify large investment banking units. Last week, U.S.-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it planned 1,000 job cuts, while Credit Suisse Group is expected to lay off as many as 1,600 people when it reports the quarter Thursday. UBS didn't elaborate on how many jobs it would cut.
In its outlook, UBS backed away from profit targets set in 2009, was downbeat for the third quarter—traditionally a slower one for investment banks—And flagged "significant" restructuring charges later this year as a result of the cost-cutting measures. While the bank may exit some business units, it would continue to invest in growth areas, a spokesman said.
"Current economic uncertainty shows little sign of abating. We therefore do not envisage material improvements in market conditions in the third quarter of 2011, particularly given the seasonal decline in activity levels traditionally associated with the summer holiday season, and expect these conditions to continue to constrain our results," UBS said in a statement.
Wall Street firms are tightening their belts as revenue has faltered because of market worries over the euro zone's debt crisis, and as the U.S. deficit and debt ceiling talks have stumbled. For Swiss banks, the effect is compounded by a strong Swiss franc, which has chipped away at revenue and profit made in other major currencies such as the dollar and euro.
The dramatic fall in profit and the job cuts overshadowed progress made by UBS's private bank, which recently stanched withdrawals from wealthy clients. The unit posted 5.6 billion francs in fresh funds in the quarter, a closely watched indicator of future revenue.
In recent weeks, U.S. rival banks have put in mixed showings for the quarter, with Goldman Sachs reporting a rare fixed-income trading stumble while J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. recorded a 13% rise following a surge in investment-banking revenue. European rival Deutsche Bank AG also reports Tuesday, while Credit Suisse and the U.K.'s Barclays Group PLC report Thursday and next Tuesday, respectively.
Moody's warns Greek default virtually 100 percent after it slashes rating by 3 notches
A man shields himself from the sun as he crosses the street in front of the Central Bank of Greece building in central Athens on Monday, July 25, 2011. Earlier Monday, Moody's international credit rating agency slashed Greece's rating by three notches to the last toehold above a default. Moody's signaled it was likely to slap a default rating on Greece as a result of its latest international bailout deal, which anticipates losses to private holders of Greek government debt. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Derek Gatopoulos, Associated Press, On Monday July 25, 2011, 8:27 am
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Moody's downgraded Greece's bond ratings by a further three notches Monday and warned that it is almost inevitable the country will be considered to be in default following last week's new bailout package.
The agency said the new EU package of measures implies "substantial" losses for private creditors. As a result, it cut its rating on Greece by three notches to Ca -- one above what it considers a default rating.
Though Moody's said a Greek debt default is "virtually certain," it noted that the new measures will increase the likelihood that Greece will be able to stabilize and eventually reduce its overall debt burden.
It also said the package also benefits other eurozone countries by "containing the near-term contagion risk that would likely have followed a disorderly payment default or large haircut on existing Greek debt."
In recent weeks, financial markets have been rocked by fears that much bigger economies like Spain and Italy may get dragged into Europe's debt crisis mire, which has also seen Ireland and Portugal bailed out alongside Greece.
Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund last week agreed to give Greece a second bailout worth euro109 billion ($155 billion), on top of the euro110 billion granted in rescue loans a year ago.
If all goes to plan, banks and other private investors will contribute some euro50 billion ($71 billion) to the rescue package until 2014 by swapping Greek bonds that they hold for new ones with lower interest rates or slightly lower face value, or selling the bonds back to Greece at a low price
"The support package incorporates the participation of private sector holders of Greek debt, who are now virtually certain to incur credit losses," Moody's said in a statement. "If and when the debt exchanges occur, Moody's would define this as a default by the Greek government on its public debt."
Despite Greece's new package, which was more comprehensive than many in the markets had predicted, Moody's said it's going to take many years of hard graft for Greece to get complete control of its debts.
"Greece will still face medium-term solvency challenges -- its stock of debt will still be well in excess of 100 percent of GDP for many years and it will still face very significant implementation risks to fiscal and economic reform," Moody's said.
The agency added that it will reassess Greece's rating once the bond exchange has been completed "to ensure that it reflects the risk associated with the country's new credit profile, including the potential for further debt restructurings."
On Friday, ratings agency Fitch also said Greece faced a default but that it would reassess the rating once the new bonds are issued -- implying that the bad rating might only last for a few days.
While Greece's brush with default will be a first for a euro country, the immediate practical consequences of the rating for Greece should be limited.
For weeks, the overriding fear was that, because of the bad rating, already struggling Greek banks would be frozen out of the European Central Bank's emergency liquidity operations.
However, last week eurozone leaders found a way around that threat by promising to temporarily deposit euro35 billion with the ECB to boost the creditworthiness of defaulted bonds used as collateral by Greek banks, until the default rating has been lifted.
Crucially for Greece and Europe as a whole, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade association, said the new rescue deal is not expected to trigger payment of bond insurance because private sector involvement is voluntary.
Greek government spokesman Elias Mossialos brushed off Moody's downgrade as of "no practical value," arguing that domestic lenders can count on secure credit lines under the terms of the new bailout.
"Unfortunately for them, (ratings agencies) won't have anything to work on for many years," he said in a radio interview. "Perhaps the finance ministry should cancel its subscriptions, because I think the Greek government pays subscriptions to these agencies to receive their results ... I don't think we need them any longer."
Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this story.
I like puts on all the Euro banks, I own puts on BCS myself...
I also like puts on our markets, I own QQQ puts...
heh.. so what's the play ?
Here's Everything You Need To Know About Tomorrow's Huge EU Meeting
Simone Foxman|Jul. 20, 2011, 10:35 AM|615|3
17 eurozone leaders will meet at 1 p.m. tomorrow in Brussels to discuss the details of a second Greek bailout.
The fate of the euro rests in the balance.
Here's what you need to know:
- The big kahuna on the table right now (at least according to Bloomberg) might be a plan to expand the powers of the European Financial Stability Fund to lend some €440 billion ($626 billion) to recapitalize Greek banks. The plan could include extending IMF credit lines to bolster countries like Italy and Spain, which -- though teetering near the precipice of disaster -- are on more stable financial ground than Greece. Germany has previously refused to support such measures, but might be persuaded to reconsider this time around.
- EU leaders have been split into two camps over debates leading up to this point. Germany and the Netherlands are advocating that private investors take losses, but the IMF and the ECB have argued that any private sector involvement in a second Greek bailout would likely be seen as "selective default" by credit rating agencies. Default would cut Greece off from ECB funding, as the bank refuses to accept defaulted bonds as collateral. Greek PM George Papandreou has promised that Greece will avoid default, but the likelihood is slim that Greece could remain solvent without substantial EU aid.
- Some credible progress needs to be made this time. Markets have been increasingly skittish over the fate of the PIIGS, and Italian and Spanish spreads are skyrocketing. Many EU leaders and investors seem to share this sense of urgency. Greek PM George Papandreou said in an interview Tuesday that the summit "could be a make-or-break moment for where Europe is going." Economists have seconded his fears. "Ministers must come up with some solution that does not involve postponing once again the difficult positions that alone can solve the fiscal crisis," Gabriel Stein of Lombard Street Research, as quoted in the The Guardian. "Otherwise the next eruption of the crisis won't be in the autumn, it is more likely to be next week."
- However, not everyone shares this sense of urgency. German chancellor Angela Merkel has waxed enigmatic about the progress that will be made. On one hand, she forced EU president Herman van Rompuy to delay the summit, tentatively scheduled for last Friday, because “the pre-condition for such a summit meeting would be that we would be in a position to take a decision and finalize the program on Greece." She appeared to contradict this sentiment Tuesday when she told reporters that nothing "spectacular" is likely to come from Thursday's meeting. Instead she advocated gradual steps. But no surprise there; she's been pissing everyone off lately.
- Euro governments are expected to loan Greece money to recapitalize banking sector, but it probably won't be enough. Greece's debt burden is expected to hit 172 percent of GDP next year, a sum that "may never get paid." Clearly, no one is about to acknowledge this for fear of exacerbating market jitters. So EU leaders will probably a lot of talk about unity and forming a "United States of Europe." Maybe they'll pass something marginally worthwhile, but they're unlikely to make progress if Germany doesn't approve.
- The wild card. A popular Irish politician is calling for Ireland to default on its debts ahead of the meeting tomorrow. Independent Deputy Shane Ross -- who garnered the most votes in the last election -- claimed, "default is not a negative, default is a positive, because believe me, the markets believe it is inevitable."
Unless something miraculous happens, the fate of the eurozone is pretty grim. Calming the markets at this point would truly require some "spectacular" measure -- and a huge helping of luck. The truth of the matter is that Greece is in way over its head, and the first bailout was far too optimistic. While a new plan to expand the powers of EFSF might provide a good short term, it's probably shy of a long-term solution that would yield a stable fiscal framework throughout the eurozone.
If Greece goes down, Italy and Spain will have a hard time keeping their heads above water as contagion fears mount. As the third and fourth largest economies of the eurozone, the fate of the euro as it currently exists depends upon their solvency. More important even than talking about a new bailout for Greece might be a mechanism to contain problems from spreading to Italy and Spain, particularly since politicians, economists, investors, and analysts are starting to realize that Greek default is inevitable.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-that-big-eu-meeting-thursday-2011-7#ixzz1SfDuFOeK
Barclays had 8.8 billion euros of Spanish government debt, according to its statement, the most among the U.K. banks.
RBS, Lloyds, Barclays Fall After Stress Tests Expose Weaknesses
By Howard Mustoe - Jul 18, 2011 8:11 AM ET .
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), Barclays Plc (BARC) and Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) tumbled in London trading after stress tests exposed the potential for losses from their sovereign and real-estate investments.
Barclays fell as much as 3.9 percent and was down 3.4 percent at 215.8 pence at 12:41 p.m. RBS slid as much as 4.7 percent and was down 1.6 pence at 33.5 pence. Lloyds dropped as much as 3.6 percent to 43.1 pence.
“They didn’t come out particularly strong,” said Shailesh Raikundlia, an analyst at MF Global Ltd. in London. “Lloyds, and RBS in particular because of their Ireland exposure, as well as the commercial real estate, where the writedowns were pretty severe on an adverse scenario.”
European banks may have to raise as much as 80 billion euros ($112 billion) of additional capital as stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority failed to allay investor concern about a Greek default and governments’ ability to bail-out their lenders, wrote analyst Kian Abouhossein, at JPMorgan Cazenove after the results were published on July 15.
RBS holds 389 million pounds of Irish sovereign debt, it said in its stress test results. RBS took a 1.82 billion-pound ($2.93 billion) provision for its non-defaulted commercial real- estate loans under the EBA’s adverse scenario for 2011, compared with an actual provision of 482 million pounds for 2010. Lloyds recorded provisions for non-defaulted commercial real estate loans of 338 million euros for 2011 in the tests, compared with 297 million euros for 2010.
Barclays had 8.8 billion euros of Spanish government debt, according to its statement, the most among the U.K. banks.
The Next Mortgage Bombshell
by Jonathan R. Laing
Monday, June 27, 2011
The private insurers that cover $700 billion of U.S. mortgages are facing an onslaught of foreclosures. The big three—MGIC, Radian, PMI—are at risk.
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/113015/next-mortgage-bombshell-barrons?mod=loans-home&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Mortgage Insurers getting killed today!
Link back for charts...
Moody’s Lowers State’s Outlook
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Moody’s Investors Service has revised the credit outlook for Rhode Island from stable to negative, citing the rising unfunded pension liability and the state’s inability to balance its budget without one-time fixes.
The state’s credit rating remained at Aa2.
“The negative outlook reflects the potential impact of rapidly escalating pension costs on the state's ability to increase its liquidity margins, diminish its reliance on one-time measures to balance its budget and reduce its debt burden,” Moody’s stated in a news release.
“The state's pension costs are set to double in two years by an amount that roughly offsets its budget reserve account, raising the likelihood that it will continue to face significant budgetary pressures and fail to achieve the fiscal breathing room needed to sustain a financial position commensurate with other Aa2-rated states.”
Key factor: pension fund
The Moody report highlighted the problems in the state pension fund, which has gone from an 84 percent funded ratio in 1999 to 61 percent in fiscal year 2009, even though the state had been making all of its annual required payments.
“Like other states, poor investment returns over the past decade and pension enrichments granted during flush times contributed to the persistent funding shortfall,” Moody’s said. “Several rounds of pension reforms, which included changes in accrual rates, retirement age, final average salary and cost of living adjustments, failed to result in significantly reduced liability.”
Moody’s noted that since General Treasurer Gina Raimondo took office, the state retirement board has adopted new assumptions about the rate of return, causing estimates of the pension liability to rise. As a result, the state retirement system is now 48 percent funded. Plus, between fiscal years 2010 and 2013, the annual cost of the system to the state budget will double.
U.S. home prices have fallen more than in Great Depression
Christine Dobby May 31, 2011 – 12:45 PM ET | Last Updated: May 31, 2011 1:09 PM ET
U.S. home prices as measured by the Case-Shiller index have now fallen by more than they did during the Great Depression, according to Capital Economics.
Paul Dales, senior U.S. Economist at Capital, said the Case-Shiller index released earlier on Tuesday — which tracks prices of single-family home in 20 major U.S. cities — are now 33% below the 2006 peak and back at a level last seen in the third quarter of 2002, edging out the 31% dip seen in the Depression of the 1930s.
“On that occasion, the peak in prices was not regained until 19 years after they first fell,” Mr. Dales said.
“The similarities between the current downturn and that seen during the Great Depression are striking,” Mr. Dales said in a note. He pointed out that on both occasions, prices initially fell by 31% and, after a temporary rebound, dropped back by 7%, the dreaded double-dip.
Double-dips are not on uncommon though. Denmark, the U.K. and Sweden all saw prices fall for a second time during the 1980s and 1990s, he notes.
Mr. Dales said the bottom has not yet been reached in U.S. housing: “We think that prices will fall by at least a further 3% this year, and perhaps even further next year.”
However he does offer a glimmer of hope. The rate at which prices are falling appeared to stabilise at 0.2% m/m in March.
“Moreover, the latest fall in prices has made housing appear even more undervalued,” he said.
Contracts to buy homes fall to a 7-month low
By DEREK KRAVITZ , 05.27.11, 10:38 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes fell sharply in April, hitting its lowest point since fall and renewing fears that a recovery in the housing market is far off.
An index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes sank 11.6 percent last month to a reading of 81.9, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. A reading of 100 would be considered healthy.
The last time the index reached at least 100 was in April 2010. That was the final month when people could qualify for a home-buying tax credit of up to $8,000.
Signings are still nearly 8 percent above June's reading of 75.9, the lowest figure since the housing bust.
Contract signings are considered a reliable indicator of the housing market's direction. That's because there's usually a one- to two-month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.
But the Realtors group has noted a larger-than-usual number of contract cancellations in recent months. Some buyers have canceled purchases after appraisals showed that the homes were worth less than the buyers' initial bids. A sale isn't final until a mortgage is closed.
US House Republicans Aim To Raise Down Payments For FHA Loans
By Alan Zibel, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are circulating legislation to raise the minimum down payment for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the main source of mortgage money for first- time homebuyers.
Currently, homeowners are able to take out FHA-backed loans with a minimum down payment of 3.5%. A draft bill being circulated by Rep. Judy Biggert (R., Ill.), would raise that minimum to 5% in an effort to stabilize the agency's finances.
Republicans aim to redesign government mortgage programs to strike "the right balance for taxpayers and homebuyers," Biggert said in a statement Monday.
A House subcommittee on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss a draft version of the bill, which would also make changes to several other government housing programs.
House Republicans have made scaling back the government's role in the housing market a key priority. However, they are encountering resistance from the housing industry, which believes such supports are essential to keep the moribund housing market from falling further.
Jaret Seiberg, a financial policy analyst at MF Global's Washington Research Group, said the bill could be good for private mortgage insurers such as PMI Group Inc. and MGIC Investment Corp., which compete with FHA.
However, he added that it could hurt the housing market in the short term.
"It would make it even harder for first-time buyers to enter the housing market regardless of their incomes or earnings potential," Seiberg wrote in a note to clients.
The FHA doesn't make loans but insures them against default. The agency's volume grew rapidly in the wake of the mortgage bust and had critics warning it would need government funding for the first time in its history. The Obama administration hiked fees and tightened lending standards, and an audit released last year showed the agency's finances stabilizing.
Loans backed by the FHA made up nearly 18% of new loans made in the first quarter, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.
PMI summary of the last Q...
Obviously, investors were expecting some sign from PMI Group that there's light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the first quarter didn't exactly provide that. Total revenue climbed 11% from last year and topped Wall Street's estimates, but the primary driver was changes in fair-value measurements for debt instruments. Premiums earned for the quarter fell by 21%. Meanwhile, the bottom line showed a $0.79-per-share loss, which was better than the $1.90 loss last year but noticeably worse than the $0.38 loss that analysts were looking for.
Now what: Possibly even more concerning for PMI investors was the company's acknowledgement that mounting losses will probably put the company out of compliance with regulatory requirements in the second quarter. That means it may face the possibility of not being able to write new business in some states. This shouldn't be too terribly shocking for PMI shareholders, though. Like competitors MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG ) and Radian Group (NYSE: RDN ) , PMI simply isn't in good shape after the beating it took during the housing meltdown. At this point, survival is the name of the game, and it's hard to expect that the numbers will look particularly pretty for some time to come.
Mortgage Insurers looking very very bad...
link back for charts...
Banks Are Flashing HUGE Red Flags, And Nobody Seems To Care
Joe Weisenthal | Apr. 18, 2011, 6:03 AM
In his latest weekly note, John Hussman once again states that markets are wildly overbought, etc. -- the same thing he's been saying for awhile.
He does draw special attention to the fact all these bank CFOs have been resigning, and nobody seems to care int he market.
---------------------------------
Two months ago, I noted that the surprise resignation of Wells Fargo's Chief Financial Officer had caught the eye of a number of shareholders, who noted my comment several quarters ago that we could observe a wave of fresh risk aversion "at the point where the first bank CFO resigns out of refusal to sharpen his pencil any further." My impression is that the underlying state of mortgage debt is no better than it was quarters ago, and indeed may be worse in the sense that there has been no meaningful decline in the backlog of delinquent and unforeclosed homes. While foreclosure filings certainly fell significantly in the first quarter, the decline was driven by record-keeping problems and legal moratoriums.
As Realty Trac observed, "Weak demand, declining home prices and the lack of credit availability are weighing heavily on the market, which is still facing the dual threat of a looming shadow inventory of distressed properties and the probability that foreclosure activity will begin to increase again as lenders and servicers gradually work their way through the backlog of thousands of foreclosures that have been delayed due to improperly processed paperwork."
It's fascinating to hear JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon complaining "We have homes sitting there for 500 days rotting that we can't do anything about" while at the same time reducing loan loss reserves on those assets. But of course, that's precisely what the FASB has allowed banks to do. Specifically, there is no longer any need to mark to market, and the FASB appears to have dropped any plan to restore it. The standard instead is "amortized cost" (on which basis you can continuously make the mortgages whole simply by tacking the delinquent payments on to the back of the loan). Little wonder half of all mortgage modifications re-default. The modifications themselves don't materially change the present value of the payment stream, and frequently don't reduce the payments themselves beyond the first year. Meanwhile, it's equally fascinating to observe how much bank earnings for the first quarter (thus far) have been driven by trading profits from commodities and fixed income (thanks Ben).
While the S&P 500 is slightly lower than it was when Wells Fargo's CFO resigned, it's probably worth noting that the CFO of Bank of America also resigned last week. The press releases focused on personal reasons in both cases, but then, those press releases on CFO departures invariably have a positive spin. We're reminded of how Citigroup reported that it had "promoted" its CFO to Vice Chairman in 2009, which the Financial Times later reported was part of an agreement with regulators that included the provision "Citigroup will initiate a process that will result in a decision on (a) whether the CFO for Citigroup ... can be more effectively utilized in other Citigroup responsibilities, and (b) if so, on replacements by a person ... with relevant financial, accounting or other experience acceptable to the agencies, with the results publicly announced by ... publication of Citigroup's third quarter 2009 earnings."
Maybe it's nothing. In any event, given that the FASB has moved in the direction of permanently disabling transparency, it's not clear that problems with bank balance sheets - even if significant - need to actually work their way through to regulatory events. What is more likely, though, is that credit conditions may be more sluggish to normalize than the upbeat bank reports of recent quarters may suggest. So my concern isn't so much a replay of the banking crisis and customer runs of early 2009, as much as it is with the headwinds for the banking system and the economy as a whole from continuing debt burdens that have not been materially restructured.
Read his whole letter >
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hussman-on-bank-cfo-departures-2011-4#ixzz1JsBXpXPO
Credit Rating Agencies Triggered Financial Crisis, U.S. Congressional Report Finds
April 13, 2011 11:36:28 PM
By Rachelle Younglai and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moody's Corp and Standard and Poor's triggered the worst financial crisis in decades when they were forced to downgrade the inflated ratings they slapped on complex mortgage-backed securities, a U.S. congressional report concluded on Wednesday.
In one of the most stark condemnations of the credit rating agencies, a Senate investigations panel said the agencies continued to give top ratings to mortgage-backed securities months after the housing market started to collapse.
The agencies then unleashed on the financial system a flood of downgrades in July 2007, the panel said.
``Perhaps more than any other single event, the sudden mass downgrades of (residential mortgage-backed securities) and (collateralized debt obligation) ratings were the immediate trigger for the financial crisis,'' the staff for Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn wrote in their report.
Story continues below
AdvertisementThe findings come after the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations spent two years poring over countless documents and holding hearings on the causes of the crisis. The probe only focused on the two largest rating agencies; it did not study Fitch Ratings.
The report calls for radical reforms to the industry that are authorized in last year's Dodd-Frank financial reform law, but may not be realized.
Dodd-Frank did little to change what some say is an inherent conflict of interest in credit raters' business model, in which the raters are paid by the companies whose products they rate.
The panel's suggested reforms include having the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rank the credit raters, based on the accuracy of their ratings.
``WATCHING A HURRICANE''
The Senate panel released internal documents showing how Moody's and S&P failed to heed their own internal warnings about the deteriorating mortgage market.
Emails in 2006 and early 2007 show employees were aware of housing market troubles, well before the massive downgrades in July 2007.
``This is like watching a hurricane from FL (Florida) moving up the coast slowly towards us. Not sure if we will get hit in full or get trounced a bit or escape without severe damage ...'' one S&P employee wrote in response to an article on the mortgage mess.
Senate investigators concluded that had Moody's and S&P heeded their own warnings, they might have issued more conservative ratings for the securities linked to shoddy mortgages.
``The problem, however, was that neither company had a financial incentive to assign tougher credit ratings to the very securities that for a short while increased their revenues, boosted their stock prices, and expanded their executive compensation,'' the report said.
Edward Sweeney, a spokesman for S&P, said in a statement on Wednesday that the Dodd-Frank Act, coupled with the company's own internal reforms, have significantly strengthened the oversight of the industry. He added that the 2007 and 2008 downgrades ``reflected the unprecedented deterioration in credit quality, but were not a cause of it.''
Michael Adler, a spokesman for Moody's, declined to comment ahead of the report's release.
NO REAL CHANGES YET SEEN
The SEC has been grappling with how to clamp down on the conflicts of interest embedded in the so-called ``issuer-paid'' model. Congress contemplated radical reforms for the agencies during the drafting of the Dodd-Frank law but in the end passed a sweeping financial regulation bill without them.
Wednesday's report includes emails from employees at both companies that illustrate the pressure that raters came under from investment banks.
An August 2006 email reveals the frustration that at least one S&P employee felt about the dependence of his employer on the issuers of structured finance products, going so far as to describe the rating agencies as having ``a kind of Stockholm syndrome'' -- the phenomenon in which a captive begins to identify with the captor.
The SEC did take some steps to address conflicts of interest at rating agencies in the past few years.
Although the Dodd-Frank law directs the SEC to write numerous additional regulations for raters, most have yet to be proposed.
And one key rule that did go into effect last July, subjecting credit raters to increased liability, was suspended after credit raters' refusal to include their ratings for asset-backed securities led to a freeze in the secondary market.
The reform has not been reinstated. (With additional reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
LPS' Mortgage Monitor Report Shows Enormous Backlog of Foreclosures; Option ARM Foreclosure Rate Higher Than Subprime Foreclosures Ever Reached
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --The February Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS) shows that while delinquencies continue to decline, an enormous backlog of foreclosures still exists with overhang at every level. As of the end of February, foreclosure inventory levels stand at more than 30 times monthly foreclosure sales volume, indicating this backlog will continue for quite some time. Ultimately, these foreclosures will most likely reenter the market as REO properties, putting even more downward pressure on U.S. home values.
February's data also showed a 23 percent increase in Option ARM foreclosures over the last six months, far more than any other product type. In terms of absolute numbers, Option ARM foreclosures stand at 18.8 percent, a higher level than Subprime foreclosures ever reached. In addition, deterioration continues in the Non-Agency Prime segment. Both Jumbo and Conforming Non-Agency Prime loans showed increases in foreclosures and were the only product areas with increases in delinquencies.
The data also showed that banks' modification efforts have begun to pay off, as 22 percent of loans that were 90+ days delinquent 12 months ago are now current. Timelines continue to extend, with the average U.S. loan in foreclosure now having been delinquent for a record 537 days, and a full 30 percent of loans in foreclosure have not made a payment in over two years.
As reported in LPS' First Look release, other key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report include:
•Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 8.8 percent
•Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate: 4.15 percent
•Total U.S. noncurrent inventory: 6,856,000
•States with most non-current* loans: Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, New Jersey, Georgia
•States with fewest non-current* loans: Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota
*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state.
Note: Totals based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets and are extrapolated to represent the industry.
About the Mortgage Monitor
LPS manages the nation's leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information on nearly 40 million loans across the spectrum of credit products. The company's research experts carefully analyze this data to produce a summary supplemented by dozens of charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations for LPS' monthly Mortgage Monitor Report.
To review the full report, visit http://www.lpsvcs.com/NEWSROOM/INDUSTRYDATA/Pages/default.aspx.
About Lender Processing Services
Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) is a leading provider of integrated technology, services and mortgage performance data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. LPS offers solutions that span the mortgage continuum, including lead generation, origination, servicing, workflow automation (Desktop®), portfolio retention and default, augmented by the company's award-winning customer support and professional services. Approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume are serviced using LPS' Mortgage Servicing Package (MSP). LPS also offers proprietary mortgage and real estate data and analytics for the mortgage and capital markets industries. For more information about LPS, visit www.lpsvcs.com.
SOURCE Lender Processing Services, Inc.
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Largest Intitutional Holders of Municipal Debt
http://www.bondbuyer.com/pdfs/040910InstitutionalHolders.pdf
Plus the chart was screaming for a bounce!
Nicely done Sir1
Probability Bad news was built in already and the bailout would come
Greetings Mike. Bought some IRE friday @ $1.47. Like the odds on it at this level. Little downside IMHO.
The whole PIGS problem reminds of an article I read once called "when the creditor becomes the slave of the debtor"
Looking for a good bounce monday
Yes.Please teach me,Thanks.shpan8
Do you want to know how to post a chart?
This board is dedicated to any depressed mortgage, real estate, banking, financial or any related stocks that are bottoming due to the fallout of the subprime market.
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