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Posted
Jul 16 2008, 05:35 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Newly-minted legend says that short-selling put Bear Stearns out of business and has swamped the stock prices of Lehman , Fannie Mae , and Freddie Mac. To keep evil from further invading the stock markets, short-selling should be put to sleep.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "In a dramatic emergency order, the SEC said it would immediately move to curb improper short selling in the stocks of struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as those of 17 financial firms, including Goldman Sachs Group, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch."
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Posted
Jun 17 2008, 12:52 PM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Ok, I'll admit that scoring Goldman Sachs' quarterly report is difficult. Was it actually a birdie because the firm easily topped analysts' earnings expectations? Or was it a bogie because earnings per share fell 7% from last year?
Either way what's clear is that Goldman is once again showing that it's the Tiger Woods of the investment banking and brokerage industry. Though it may have found itself in a sand trap here and there, the firm's solid fundamental play has kept it on the fairway more often than not during a tough year. Meanwhile, competitors like Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch have spent an awful lot of time in the rough and have been scoring double-digit bogies. And of course let's not forget Bear Stearns, which was unceremoniously asked to leave the course altogether.
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Posted
Jun 13 2008, 03:29 PM
by
Andrew Horowitz
Rating:
There are only a few sectors that may be considered healthy in an otherwise sickly market these days. Energy is one sector that has investors smiling. While there is still a great deal of ongoing investigation being done into the potential manipulation of energy prices by speculators, shares of most companies within the oil sector have been continuing to climb as the higher level of oil prices will ultimately help their profits. Surely there will come a time when prices are high enough to push corrective legislation along with a hope for a fundamental change in America’s ideals concerning oil consumption.
Technology has also been somewhat immune from much of the horror that we have seen in many of the market sectors and this week ‘s earnings starts with a longtime industry leader, Adobe. (Listen to The Disciplined Investor Podcast #61 as we will be discussing technology with guests John C. Dvorak and Leo Laporte) Here's a look at upcoming earnings and economic factors that could drive the markets next week
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Posted
May 27 2008, 12:24 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Solar energy may be the wave of energy's future, but companies like Google and Chevron may best start-ups in getting to the benefits. A number of large American companies with tremendous balance sheets are pouring money into solar energy based on the fact that it is becoming more competitive with oil.
According to Bloomberg, "Costs for the technology will fall below coal as soon as 2020, the U.S. government estimates. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo invested last year in the biggest solar plant built in a generation; Chevron and Google are funding research; and Goldman Sachs is seeking land to lease as demand out-paces wind turbines and geothermal."
Given the potential size of the bonanza, the investments should not be surprising, but they could squeeze smaller solar energy companies out of the market. Firms like JA Solar and SunTech bet their entire futures
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Posted
Mar 10 2008, 04:30 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
The first quarter should be another brutal right of passage for big investment banks. Citigroup is forecasting that they will have to write-down another $9 billion in Q1. According to Reuters the damage will be "primarily driven by additional leveraged loan and mortgage-related losses."
Among the hardest hit firms will be Goldman Sachs which is facing as much as a $3.2 billion write-off, Merrill Lynch, which may post $2.9 billion in write-downs, and Morgan Stanley where the figure could be as high as $1.2 billion.
If the numbers are correct, it may open the door for another round of raising funds for the brokerages. Now that most of them have called on sovereign banks overseas, it will be essential that U.S. private equity firms or Treasury help them out of the mounting mess.
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Posted
Mar 04 2008, 09:26 AM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
With so much bad news circling out there I guess it's not too surprising that something will slip by me every once in a while. Without the help of DealBreaker I might have missed the news that Goldman Sachs could finally be staring down the barrel of the credit market losses it looked like it had dodged.
DealBreaker, and Bloomberg last week, reported that VIEs (variable interest entities) could be the next collection of letters that will spark billions of dollars of losses in the financial markets. According to Bloomberg it could be as bad as $88 billion, and $11 billion of that could come from Goldman alone.
It was shocking and not-so-shocking to me all at once. On the one hand, there was part of me that thought Goldman would be able to navigate through this mess will just some nicks and scratches. After all, it was shorting the heck out of some of the markets that were falling the fastest and was making money where others were losing big. The company is still among Fortune's most admirable companies, and one of its bankers even got a shout-out from Warren Buffett (who's no big fan of Wall Street) in this year's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' letter.
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Posted
Oct 30 2007, 03:16 PM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
So after he oversaw $8 billion-plus in losses at Merrill Lynch and shopped a merger with Wachovia without consulting his own board, Stan O'Neal is officially out of the CEO spot. At least he'll have plenty of time to tweak his golf game now. Oh no, wipe away those tears -- ol' Stan, he won't be on the ramen noodle diet any time soon.
While the troubles of other struggling firms like Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and Bank of America have faded into the background to some extent as Merrill's shenanigans have taken center stage, they're not gone. Even Merrill, which may elicit the reaction of "how much worse can it really get" might get a bit worse. Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo, who's been really turning the screws on the management teams at the banks, suggests that new management might get even more conservative and write off as much as $4 billion more.
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