Analysis Topic: Companies Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Will Citibank Survive? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: James_Turk
The center of focus this past week on Wall Street – and indeed, much of the financial world – was whether or not Bear Stearns will go belly-up. As questions arose about the quality of its $395 billion of assets that were carried on only $12 billion of equity, its customers and other brokers became unwilling to accept the counterparty risk that arises from transacting with Bear, while its lenders began worrying about repayment. Being leveraged to that extent, even a small decline in the value of its assets can significantly erode the firm's equity base. But given that Bear is no more than the fifth largest broker in the US , it is a relatively small fish in the financial world. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Halifax (HBOS) Hit by Hedge Fund Short Selling and Emergency Funding Rumours / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Halifax (HBOS), Britain's biggest Mortgage bank shares crashed by 20% on the opening this morning as suspected hedge fund forced short selling drove the stock price sharply lower to £3.98. This was accompanied by rumours that the bank had to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England and that the central banks staff leave had been cancelled to deal with the crisis.
The Bank of England and the FSA took the unprecedented step of issuing statements that categorically denied the rumours. The FSA went further that it had launched an investigation into the trading activity surrounding HBOS and other banks this morning and accused traders of 'market abuse by spreading false rumours to profit from short-selling.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Lehman Brothers Next Wall Street Bank to Go Bust? / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
In the wake of Bear Stearns Firesale to JP Morgan, which itself is far from immune to panic withdrawals, the credit crisis loss of confidence contaigent appears to have Lehman Brothers in its sights. Panicking Wall Street investors who saw their shares in Bear Stearns go from $62 to $2 in a matter of days dumped stock in Lehman Brothers on Mondays opening. The stock traded down to $20 on Monday before rallying and closing at $31.75 down about 20% on the day. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 17, 2008
UK Mortgage and Commercial Banks Decimated by Bear Stearns Bust / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Panic selling of the financial sector gripped the stock market today following news of the bailout of Bear Stearns over the weekend. The FTSE ended the day down over 200 points. The banks hit the hardest were the mortgage banks followed closely by those with large mortgage backed bonds and derivatives exposure as the deleveraging of the $500 trillion market continues. The Bank of England stepped in to provide emergency lending of £5 billion which was oversubscribed by more than 5 times, and indication of the desperate state of the UK banks. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Bear Stearns Nearly Bankrupt! More Wall Street Failures Coming! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin D. Weiss writes:Today marks the first day of the next phase of the credit collapse we've been warning you about: The failure phase.
The first victim: Bear Stearns.
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Friday, March 14, 2008
Bear Stearns Nearly Insolvent in 24hours- Lenders of The Last Resort Unite! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Brady_Willett
According to Bear Stearns CEO, Alan Schwartz, his company went from being a stable and liquid enterprise to nearly insolvent in the span of 24-hours. What unexpected event arrived to shipwreck poor Bear? Market chatter of course:
“Bear Stearns has been the subject of a multitude of market rumors regarding our liquidity. We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction. Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.” Bear Stearns PR
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Chinese Stock Market Pull Back A Great Buying Opportunity / Companies / China Stocks
By: Money_and_Markets
The Olympics have long been a boon to stock markets of host countries. The Spanish stock market climbed 19% in the 12 months prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, while the Greek stock market jumped by 27% in the year before the 2004 Athens Olympics.
And those countries were not growing at a fraction of the breakneck pace that China is. So it wouldn't surprise me to see the Chinese stock market double or even triple those numbers. Specific stocks could do even better.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Three Investment Clean-Air Plays in China Ahead of the Olympics / Companies / Resources Investing
By: Money_and_Markets
Tony Sagami writes: Even though August is a long way off, I have been very busy preparing to travel to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. And while every trip takes preparation, this cross-continent journey is taking more planning than usual!
I shouldn't complain though. After all, my preparation pales in comparison to the planning being done by the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government.
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Monday, February 18, 2008
Northern Rock Bank Nationalised- Which Bank will be Next? / Companies / UK Banking
By: Nadeem_Walayat
On Sunday Gordon's Darling released the statement that the UK Government would nationalise Northern Rock Bank before Mondays stock market open, as the two takeover proposals virtually guaranteed huge profits for the bidders such as Branson's Virgin group, whilst the government would have been stuck with the debt of as much as £50 billions, sat to wait patiently for upwards of 25 years for the debt to slowly be repaid if at all.
At mid-day today, Gordon Brown the British Prime minister waded in to support the decision to nationalise the bank in the face of shareholder protests, and said that the delays were necessary so as to weigh potential private sector alternatives to nationalisation.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Seven Companies Set to Rake in the Cash on China's Consumer Boom! / Companies / China Stocks
By: Money_and_Markets
“Gung Hay Fat Choy!” - That's the Mandarin greeting for Happy New Year, and it was uttered by 1.3 billion Chinese last Thursday, which began the Year of the Rat.
The Lunar New Year is like our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all rolled into an elaborate celebration of reflection, gratitude, renewal and hope. It is the single most celebrated holiday in China.
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Friday, February 08, 2008
Chinese-Alcoa consortium Forces BHP to pay more for Rio Tinto / Companies / Metals & Mining
By: Fat_Prophets
BHP Billiton has upped the ante with respect to its takeover ambitions for Rio Tinto, boosting its previous 3-for-1 share offer to a more reasonable 3.4-for-1. To what extent this increase was influenced by the arrival of the Chinese onto the RIO register remains a mystery, but it must have entered BHP's calculations to some degree. We believe RIO remains in a position of strength with regard to developments and that shareholders should sit tight.
"RIO remains firmly in the driver's seat with respect to the unfolding takeover scenario."
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Friday, February 08, 2008
BHP Billiton Enhanced Bid for Rio Tinto / Companies / Metals & Mining
By: Fat_Prophets
BHP Billiton has enhanced its previous 3-for-1 scrip offer for Rio Tinto, by announcing on the final day before the 'put up of shut up' deadline, a fresh 3.4-for-1 scrip offer. What role the late entry of the Chinese-Alcoa alliance into proceedings had on BHP increasing its offer remains to be seen, but it would seem to have forced BHP's hand to some degree. BHP has also announced a US$6.0 billion interim result for the six months to 31 December 2007, which was broadly in line with market expectations.
"The motive for BHP remains clear - acquisition of Rio Tinto would create a mining company with unparalleled market and pricing influence."
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Monday, February 04, 2008
Egg Card Cracked by Credit Crunch as Customers Scramble for Cover / Companies / Credit Crunch
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Egg bank took drastic action to limit its risk of exposure to potential bad debt defaults amongst its credit card holders by banning 160,000 of its customers from being able to use their credit cards for new transactions leaving cards open only for repayment of outstanding balances. Angry customers responded with tens of thousands of internet posts stating messages that they tended to clear their balances on time. The 160,000 banned amounts to 7% of the Egg credit card customer base. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 25, 2008
Technology and Consumer Staples Investing Themes 2008: A Tale of Two Halves - Part3 / Companies / Sector Analysis
By: Hans_Wagner
The beginning of a new year is a good time to make a new assessment of the important investment drivers and themes for the year. If you want to beat the market it is important to understand what is driving the markets and where are the best sectors to find good opportunities. By identifying these factors you will have a solid framework to assess the impact market movements and news events on your investment strategy. This is the third of a five part series on the outlook for the 2008 markets. The first part discussed the key drivers ending with a mention of what sectors will benefit and those that will be hurt. Part 2 reviewed the outlook for the energy and financials sectors.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Northern Rock Bank Bust and the UK Mortgage Banking Sector Crash / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Adrian_Ash
"...All investing is risky – all the way down to zero. And if government steps in to bail out a business, it should've gone to the wall in the first place..."
JUST IN CASE YOU'D forgotten – or you've set up a hedge fund in London lately – shareholders come last in line when a listed company goes bust.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
CitiGroup $10 billion Devastating Quarterly loss - Still Just Tip of the Bad Debts Iceberg! / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Citigroup the United States second largest bank posted a record quarterly loss of $10 billion due to the continuing fall out from the subprime mortgage crisis that continues to depress US housing market as Adjustable Rate mortgages adjust to higher interest rates.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Northern Rock Bank to be Nationalised by UK Government / Companies / UK Banking
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It now seems like another era when I first warned of the problems specifically facing Northern Rock bank back in August 2007, some four weeks before the run on the bank occurred and the interbank money markets freeze hit the headlines. Over that period we have witnessed the initial £2 billion of tax payer loans and guarantees mushroom to an estimated £55 billions today.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Citigroup Results To Coincide with Major Upside Reversal - Buyers Will Prevail / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Mike_Paulenoff
Tuesday morning ahead of the open, Citigroup (C) reports earnings, which needless to say, could be problematic for the company, the financial sector, and for the entire market.
On the other hand, based purely on my technical work, C is at or is very
near to a major upside pivot reversal from within the 26.00-28.00 price
zone. The bank will have to produce disastrous results acutely worse than
the write-downs and losses currently built into the price. When I juxtapose
the chart of C with the pending news, my conclusion is that a falling price
from here will be subject to the "beachball effect," which means that a
negative price reaction will not be able to be sustained -- and the buyers
will prevail (from 26.00-28.00 area).
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Energy Stocks Undervalued as Crude Oil Targets Beyond $100 During 2008 / Companies / Energy Resources
By: Roger_Conrad
Is energy cheap or dear? Oil prices cut above the once-unthinkable level of $100 a barrel for the first time ever this week. One of the biggest questions as we move into 2008 is what kind of impact that will have on the wider markets and the US economy. Since oil bottomed in the late 1990s, both market and economy have survived successive milestones in its rise, despite forecasts of disaster every time a new one was reached. Last year, however, crude prices reached new territory by breaking past their '70s highs in inflation-adjusted terms. At the same time, the collapse of the US housing industry and mortgage market began to stoke US recession worries in earnest.
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Saturday, December 29, 2007
Importance of Energy Sector Stocks Selection / Companies / Oil Companies
By: Elliot_H_Gue
Perhaps one of the most-frustrating myths about investing in the energy patch is that it's all about predicting the direction of oil and natural gas prices.
One commonly held belief is that oil and gas-related stocks all move as a group--basically, in the same direction as the underlying commodities. For that matter, I've heard plenty of times from investors who believe that nuclear power, alternative energy and other non-hydrocarbon energy plays also follow oil and natural gas prices.
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