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Market Closing Update: Late Slide For Stocks Reflects Jobs Report Jitters

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:45:00 GMT

Stocks pushed to new daily lows heading into the close, including a brief 100-point drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as Wall Street braces for the latest monthly jobs report out early Friday. The DJIA closed down 86 points or 0.8%, the S&P 500 shed 0.8% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.5%.[More...]

Ambac May File Bankruptcy Soon

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:44:15 GMT

Bond insurer Ambac Financial has warned bankruptcy is a distinct possibility, sending its shares plummeting more than 30% today. What is intriguing about this pending bankruptcy is how this company escaped bankruptcy in 2008, was downgraded continually in 2009, yet just reported billions in profit 5 days ago. Now it warns of bankruptcy?[More...]

Daily Highlights: 11/11/09

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:29:44 GMT

Asian stocks, currencies rise on Japan, China economic data; gold advances.China's industrial production output grew 16.1% in October, its fastest pace in more than a year.Job openings in U.S. remain close to record-lowsOil prices fell $79 a barrel in Asia amid rising U.S. oil inventories and a weaker dollarSwiss rules to tie bonuses to profit will apply only to the nation’s 12 largest banksUnfilled positions climb to most since June as US companies delay hiring.USDA trimmed its production forecast and raised its price outlook for crops.Adobe to cut about 680 full-time positions or about 9% of its total work force.AIG’s CEO Robert Benmosche, after just 3 months, is ready to quit over pay constraintsArvinMeritor[More...]

Counterintuitive Accounting: Ambac Edition

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:14:19 GMT

Earlier today, Ambac Financial Group (a big bond insurer) reported that it earned more than $2 billion in the third quarter, or $7.58 per share. As reported over at Marketwatch, these must be among the lowest quality earnings in accounting history:[More...]

Where The New PPT Hides

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:07:41 GMT

There are five zombie banks that control between 20%-40% of NYSE daily volume. It started earlier this year with Citigroup and Bank of America. They equaled 10% of NYSE total daily volume. Now the trend in High Frequency Trading (HFT) is on the rise. This begs several questions. If this is a healthy bull market, why are just five stocks running the exchange? Is it possible the bailout money is being funneled into just a few stocks?[More...]

Weekly Credit Summary: August 28

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:57:29 GMT

Credit underperformed equities this week as single-name tighteners edged wideners by four-to-three leaving indices (especially HY) underperforming intrinsics in general. CONSumer and ENRG names underperformed as TMT and FINLs were best with INDUstrials mixed. Financials outperformed non-financials but the strength in the former was more at the tails of the distribution while the weakness in the latter was more broad-based.[More...]

Morning Shocker: So Ambac (NYSE: ABK) Really Wasn't AAA?

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:30:00 GMT

A: Remember the days in early 2008 when Charlie Gasparino was on the air every day with the 'bond insurer' saga of whether they would get downgraded from their AAA rating! The insurers adamantly backed their AAA standing and the credit rating agencies were hesitant to downgrade them even though we all knew their portfolios were garbage and the claims made on them would be tremendous. MBIA Chief told us that insolvency risks were 'without merit'; MBIA trades at $4 today. UrbanDigs first discussed the bond insurers in 2007, why it was important if they were downgraded from AAA bullshit rating at that time, the saga that ensued in early 2008 and finally the [More...]

Budget Cuts On The Way In California

Thu, 21 May 2009 16:59:51 GMT

The Sacramento Bee reports that Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to "go all out" to slash spending after voters rejected lawmakers' proposed solutions to close a portion of the gaping budget deficit two days ago. Wednesday marked a flurry of Capitol activity after election results expanded the state's projected fiscal gap by $6 billion – from an estimated $15.4 billion to $21.3 billion. A joint budget committee announced that it will begin a marathon series of meetings today. ... Schwarzenegger promised to make severe reductions in education, health care and law enforcement. "Every department, every agency, every board needs to essentially be on the table for consolidation, downsizing and, in some cases, elimination," said Assemblyman Sam[More...]

Financials - Industry Outlook

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:23:00 GMT

Highlighted stocks include Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN), MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) and MBIA Inc. (MBI). While we remain negative over all, we would note our outlook has begun to improve a bit around the edges given the comparatively limited downside potential remaining for certain entities. The financial markets and financial stocks in particular have experienced a significant percentage-point lift following the pending modification to the mark-to-market accounting rules (an artificial adjustment to capital) and the announcement for the Public Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) -- though we would point out that there is nothing of[More...]

AIG Bailout Empowers Class Action Lawsuit Against MBIA

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:11:00 GMT

Dow Jones Newswires is reporting that Aurelius Capital Master Ltd., Aurelius Capital Partners and funds owned by Fir Tree Partners have a class action lawsuit to prevent the splitting of MBIA (MBI) into separate subsidiaries insuring government and structured product debt. The MBIA plan, endorsed by New York State's Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, would capitalize the new government insurer with $5.4B in cash and transfer all existing MBIA municipal policies. At the same time Reuters is reporting that 15 financial institutions are meeting with Dinallo today to complain that split would adversely affect CDS they wrote on securities wrapped by MBIA.[More...]

Bradley moves bonds to new bank

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:46:00 GMT

Nov. 18--CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Bradley County commissioners agreed Monday to switch debt from two bond issues, totaling $20 million, from one bank to another.
It is a means of substituting a new obligation for an old debt.
Ambac Financial Group Inc., headquartered in New York City, holds two issues, which represent about a quarter of the total county's $80 million bond debt.

: iStockAnalyst.com Symbols Feed

Market Closing Update: Late Slide For Stocks Reflects Jobs Report Jitters

Ambac May File Bankruptcy Soon

Daily Highlights: 11/11/09

Counterintuitive Accounting: Ambac Edition

Where The New PPT Hides

Weekly Credit Summary: August 28

Morning Shocker: So Ambac (NYSE: ABK) Really Wasn't AAA?

Budget Cuts On The Way In California

Financials - Industry Outlook

AIG Bailout Empowers Class Action Lawsuit Against MBIA

Bradley moves bonds to new bank

S&P: Rating Actions Taken on Five Kuwaiti Banks Following S&P Review

Pike May Face $268m Bill

Pike May Face $268m Bill: Tolls Could Rise As Bonds Downgraded to ?Junk'

Banks Must Take Precautionary Measures in Financal Crisis

AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Banking Briefs - Jan 26 2009 10:59AM

ABK -- First Kuwaiti Bank to Open in Abu Dhabi

Judge Gives Reprieve to Hoosier Energy

Movers: Google, IBM, Schlumberger, Ambac, AIG, Honeywell

S&P Picks and Pans: Google, IBM, Ambac, Schlumberger, AMD, Satyam

PicksThatMove.com Announces Investment Opinion on High River Gold Mines Ltd., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, AMBAC Financial Group, Tianyin Pharmaceuticals Company Inc. and Hawk Systems, Inc.

Wall St Sense Undertakes Financial Research on Stocks Trading on Basic Materials, Financial & Services Sectors

PicksThatMove.com Announces Investment Opinion on AMBAC Financial Group Inc., Canasia Industries Corporation, DryShips Inc., instaCare Corp. and Gold Wheaton Corporation

PicksThatMove.com Announces Investment Opinion on Ambac Financial Group Inc., Xerox Corporation, Kinross Gold Corporation, American Lithium Minerals Inc. and NovaGold Resources

BenchmarkJournal.Com Free Analyst Review for ABK, EQR, KMB, BBD, FIG and MRK

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Net Loss of $2,396.6 Million

Ambac Reschedules Second Quarter Earnings Release for August 7, 2009

Ambac Announces Second Quarter Estimate of Credit Derivative Impairment and Loss and Loss Expenses

Ambac Postpones Its Efforts to Launch Everspan

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. Announces First Quarter Net Loss of $392.2 Million

Form 4 AMBAC FINANCIAL GROUP For: Nov 23 Filed by: BIENSTOCK GREGG L (10K)

Form 4 AMBAC FINANCIAL GROUP For: Oct 20 Filed by: Smith Robert Sorenson (10K)

Form 4 DEROSA PAUL R For: Oct 01 (10K)

Form 4 Stevens Timothy J For: Jul 23 (10K)

Form 4 Smith Robert Sorenson For: Jul 15 (10K)

Form 3/A Smith Robert Sorenson For: Jul 15 (10K)

Form 3 Smith Robert Sorenson For: Jul 16 (10K)

Form 4/A DEROSA PAUL R For: Jul 01 (10K)

Form 4 DEROSA PAUL R For: Jul 01 (10K)

Form 4 CALLEN MICHAEL A For: Jun 03 (10K)