Browse by Tags

• Are hedge funds cruisin' for a bruisin'?

  Posted Aug 18 2008, 06:57 PM by Matt Koppenheffer
  Filed under: Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros, CAPS, JPMorgan
  Rating:

  We've seen a lot of wild things in the stock market over the past few years. Homebuilders have completely crashed and burned, banks and other financial companies are treading water at best, retail stocks have been punished, and the dollar has been in freefall. And all this while commodities from gold to wheat to oil have been skyrocketing.
  
  But it may get just a bit wilder now that whole scenario has been flipped on its head. Financials have had fitful rallies, the dollar is showing some definite life, and oil has been sliding. While this could lead to a number of different outcomes, on The Motley Fool's CAPS service CAPS blogger RVAspeculator thinks that this turn of events is delivering a sucker punch to some hedge funds and Wall Street trading desks.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 2 comments) 1,459 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Lehman says thanks for sticking around

  Posted Jul 03 2008, 10:23 AM by Matt Koppenheffer
  Filed under: Investment Banking, Lehman Bros, CAPS
  Rating:

  In an unusual move, Lehman Brothers decided to try and engender some employee goodwill by handing out a mid-year bonus. Unfortunately, it was in stock. Worse still, it was in Lehman stock.
  
  Now before you go and assume that this is a bad idea because Lehman stock has been so badly beaten up, let's be clear -- this is bad for a whole lot of reasons. And instead of getting hung up on minutiae like whether it's really an incentive when you're handing out shares of a plummeting stock, think about what this says about the bigger picture at Lehman.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 2 comments) 6,722 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Will Lehman crash and burn?

  Posted Jun 05 2008, 02:50 PM by Matt Koppenheffer
  Filed under: Investment Banking, Lehman Bros, CAPS
  Rating:

  Are we going to get an encore showing of "The Amazing Disappearing Investment Bank?" Now that Bear Stearns is no more, the banking bears and short sellers have turned their attention to fellow investment bank Lehman Brothers.
  
  With the massive leverage ratios that the investment banks have propped themselves on, creditor confidence has become a prized asset -- maybe the prized asset. There was plenty that was going haywire over at Bear, but it ended up being a complete and rapid drying up   Read More...

  Discuss ( 56 comments) 41,164 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• As the Lehman turns

  Posted Dec 14 2007, 03:23 PM by Matt Koppenheffer
  Filed under: Investment Banking, Lehman Bros, CAPS
  Rating:
  Lehman Brothers reported its fourth quarter and full year earnings yesterday. Interestingly, the earnings -- which were pretty darn good considering what's been going on -- didn't get or create nearly the hullabaloo that the massive, stomach churning losses at other Wall Street firms stirred up.
  
  Well allow me to take a moment: nice quarter fellas.
  
  The problem is -- nobody's interested right now in believing that a Wall Street firm is doing something right. It's not hard to blame them -- finance firms seem to be hitting a wall all at once and the result has been the evaporation of tens of billions of dollars of shareholder value.   Read More...
  Discuss (no comments) 902 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this