Archives: June 2008

Lehman Brothers to be a “take under’’ candidate?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 30

By Matthew Goldstein Shares of the battered investment bank took another beating on Monday on widespread speculation that a rival firm was going to make a bid for Lehman Brothers...

A Bear executive's Wall Street comeback

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 30

By Matthew Goldstein Former Bear Stearns executive Richard Marin certainly knows a thing or two about hedge fund failures. Marin was the chairman of Bear Stearns Asset Management when the...

First Eagle's Eveillard will soon name his successor

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 29

Jean-Marie Eveillard, he of the thick French accent and incredible multi-decade investing record, is almost ready to retire -- again. Eveillard, who managed the First Eagle Global Fund (SGENX) among...

When Analysts Matter

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 27

Wall Street has a love-hate relationship with its research analysts. On the one hand, equity analysts have a decidedly mixed record of accurately predicting the future. If you bought when...

SPACs as a hiding place in bear markets

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 26

I've never been a big fan of special purpose acquisition corporations, or SPACs. Those are the publicly-traded pools of money raised to give some financier or other a source of...

Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian says its time to worry about inflation now

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 26

Mohamed El-Erian, the former and current star manager at Pimco and Bill Gross's right-hand man, has a tendency to sound more than a little Greenspan-esque. It could be from his...

Living in the Stock Market Moment

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 24

Are the stomach-churning ups-and-downs of the financial markets not quite thrilling enough for you? Do you crave instantaneous, immediate connection to the stock market? You're in luck. Today the New...

Banks: Merrill Brings the Gloom

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 20

This earnings season could be brutal for U.S. banks, the continuation of a banking crisis that could last for years. That's the implication of a new report from Merrill Lynch...

Bear Stearns Fund Managers Indicted

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 19

By Matthew Goldstein and David Henry Former Bear Stearns executives Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were indicted on federal securities fraud charges on June 18, almost a year after the...

Bear Stearns Fund Managers Indicted

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 19

By Matthew Goldstein and David Henry Ex-Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin are now the first Wall Street executives to face criminal charges arising from the...

Ready for a 300-point Drop in the S&P 500?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 18

A Royal Bank of Scotland credit strategist, Bob Janjuah, rattled investors around the world today with predictions that the S&P 500, now trading near 1340, could plunge to 1050 by...

An Even Bigger Bear

Posted by: Lauren Young on June 18

I received an email from Rob Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, today about this story . It seems the Royal Bank of Scotland is even more bearish than Arnott. The...

Stock Buybacks Retreat in Q1 But Remain Strong

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on June 18

Q1 2007 S&P 500 buybacks at $113.9B vs. $117.7B Q1 2007; First Q-over-Q decline (-3.23%) since Q3 2003 Pullback by Financials that started just prior to the credit crunch continues;...

La-Z-Boy Tries to Sit Up

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 17

The reference is a little dated, but you could call La-Z-Boy (LZB) a "Rodney Dangerfield" stock. From the perspective of long-term investors, the furniture company seems to be doing a...

Could Floods Affect Investors?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 16

Wall Street might begin to feel the impact of the devastating and tragic flooding in the Midwest. And I'm not just talking about indirect effects, like damage to Midwestern states'...

Another Argument for Optimism

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 16

Manny Weintraub of Integre Advisors put out a note last week with the optimistic thesis that "it really isn't as terrible as it could be." He mostly focused on the...

Links for Friday the 13th

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 13

To start the weekend, here are some intriguing blog posts on the stock market and investing: 1. Bespoke Investment Group notes that, on average, the stock market performs no more...

The "Last Man Standing" Strategy

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 13

Difficult times can create opportunities for investors willing to take some risks. For example, the financial crisis has wounded so many firms that it might make sense to employ a...

InBev's Bud Bid: A Bullish Sign for Stocks?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 12

InBev made it official, launching a unsolicited $46 billion bid for Anheuser-Busch (BUD). When the possibility of a deal was first reported last month, I wrote: This $46 billion deal,...

It’s Not A Recession Unless They Say So

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on June 12

The upwardly revised Q1 GDP to a 0.9% gain, on top of the 0.6% Q4 2007 gain, will make it difficult for the National Bureau of Economic Research to officially...

Financial dividends

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on June 12

With today's KeyCorp's dividend decline, there have now been 16 Financial decreases vs. 12 for the 5-years from 2003 through 2007 (with 5 of those coming in Q4 2007 -...

Stunning mutual fund hire: Fidelity's Reynolds to ailing Putnam

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 12

I had to check and see if it was April Fool's Day as I sifted through the morning email today and read a release from slowly dying on the vine...

No Panic for Most Financials

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 11

Earlier this week, I wrote about "nontoxic" financial stocks, focusing on banks, brokers and other financial institutions that prospered despite tough times. (The accompanying slideshow by Ricky McRoskey is here,...

Europe Looking Cheap?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 09

In the past month, U.S. investors have been pulling money out of European equity funds. Through June 5, about $20 million has flowed out of the seven European stock funds...

The Days After the Big Days

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 09

In my 'in box' this morning appeared more evidence that the stock market's movements from day to day are almost entirely random. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped almost 400...

A Case for Buying Stocks

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 05

Stocks rallied today. One portfolio manager said it was mostly just a "relief rally," a bouncing back after bearish news earlier in the week. But to put you in a...

M&A premiums up despite slowdown

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 05

Buyers are paying more than ever to shareholders to acquire companies, even as the M&A market remains slow. This is the intriguing contradiction in new May 2008 data from Thomson...

Looking for Good News on Inflation

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 04

Earlier this week, I wrote about the threat that inflation poses to investors. To hedge against inflation, many investors are plowing their money into commodity funds, and thus betting on...

A Drop in U.S. IPOs

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 03

Market observers like to keep an eye on initial public offerings because the pace and size of IPOs is a good gauge of the mood of the market. Willingness to...

BRIC

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on June 03

The importance of the BRIC counties continues to grow, with their weights now representing 56.4% of the Emerging markets, 5.78% of the combined world (Emerging and Developed) markets, and 9.72%...

Bear Markets, Then and Now

Posted by: Ben Steverman on June 02

How does this recession, and the stock market reaction to it, compare with previous slowdowns? From Citigroup (C), by way of Schroder Investment Management, the results of a study of...