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• Lehman says thanks for sticking around

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

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• Surprising stocks top best of 2008 list

  Posted Jun 26 2008, 01:18 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, Merrill Lynch, Investment Banking, Motorola, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros, Valero, stocks, economy, Jon Markman
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  It’s easy to imagine that the 25 best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index this year are all oil and gas producers, and the 25 worst-performing stocks are all banks and brokers. Yet as we near the halfway mark in 2008, it turns out that there are quite a few surprises in the mix of best and worst.

  For instance, the No. 1 stock in the benchmark index this year isn’t an oil producer, but a coal miner, Massey Energy.  It’s up 155% so far, rising to $89 from $35 as coal prices have soared in the wake of booming demand in China and India. The No. 2 stock is actually a discount retailer, Big Lots. It’s up 100%, from $15 to $30, as investors speculate it will get a big share of tax-rebate money from low-income Americans.

  Most of the rest of the next best 15 gainers   Read More...

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• Will Lehman crash and burn?

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

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• Has the market really bottomed? Maybe. Perhaps.

  Posted Apr 04 2008, 07:55 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investment Banking, M & A, Lehman Bros, subprime, stocks
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  There are enormous amounts of chatter about whether the markets have bottomed.

  So, what's the evidence?

  The market itself. Down as much as 18% in January from its Oct. 9, 2007 all-time closing high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average's loss has been trimmed to 11%. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, briefly down 20% on March 17 from October in the turmoil over Bear Stearns, is now off 12.4% from its October peak. And the Nasdaq Composite Index's loss from a peak on Oct. 31 has shrunk from 25% on March 17 to 17% on Friday. OK, let's turn the thought around. The Dow is up 8% from its lows in January. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both up 9% and 10% off their lows on March 17. Lastly, the S&P 500 moved above its 50-day moving average on March 24, briefly dipped under it and has moved above it again. Moreover, the moving average has started to rise for the first time since November.

  The Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke & Gang have made it clear they won't allow the financial system to collapse. That was the result the Fed and many on Wall Street had feared would happen if Bear Stearns had been forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Instead, Bear Stearns has agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase   Read More...

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• As the Lehman turns

  Posted Dec 14 2007, 03:23 PM by Matt Koppenheffer
  Filed under: Investment Banking, Lehman Bros, CAPS
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  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...
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