Factory Orders Up 1.8%, Stocks Rally How ‘bout this market? Yesterday rates moved higher, and prices lower, after Factory Orders increased 1.8% in February, following a downwardly revised 3.5% drop in January, and six consecutive monthly decreases. So why wouldn’t rates come down? US stock markets continued their rally, and in fact most overseas stock
Wachovia
The former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, is writing a book about his role in the Bush administration during the economic crisis. Oddly, the book starts on Chapter 11. End of Month Lender Strain It is the last day of the month. Not only are Ops departments everywhere scrambling to fund loans while they keep an
The big news of the day, besides more bank earnings, is that a coach of a Texas high school got fired after beating another team in basketball 100-0. The coach would not apologize, since his girls played with honor and integrity (his words) in beating Dallas Academy, which has 8 girls on the team and
Here’s your financial vocabulary lesson for today: “Liquidity” – When you look at your investments and wet your pants. More Firms Close Mortgage Broker Channel First Federal of California is the latest lender to close their wholesale channel to brokers. I imagine the following announcement prompted yet another round of rumors and calls to the
Refinancers Must Pay Taxes Early In California, the first half of regular secured property tax bills are due November 1st, and delinquent after December 10th; the second half are due February 1st, and delinquent after April 10th each year. Property taxes are interesting beasts, and although there are comparisons done by state, it is standard
After failing and being seized by the FDIC earlier this year, Indymac is now on the block to be bought within 90 days. The FDIC has taken on the role of investment bank as the bank failures mount. After the Indymac failure depleted the FDIC fund, FDIC head Sheila Bair took on a new approach,
Lots of people forwarded me this week’s NY Times story tracing the careers of Herbert and Marion Sandler, a husband and wife banking team that founded World Savings in 1963, introduced Option ARMs in 1981 then sold their firm to Wachovia in 2006 and made about $2.6 billion. Option ARMs are mortgages with many payment
Twenty-two banks have failed so far in 2008. After Indymac failed in July, which was the largest of the year at that time, the FDIC saw that their reserves for taking over failing banks were going to disappear in a hurry. So they started acting as investment bank of sorts by brokering deals where they’d
Downey Financial, a Newport CA based savings and loan, was seized by the FDIC Friday and sold to US Bank in a deal the FDIC brokered. As of October 22, Downey’s loans no longer collecting interest were 15.7 percent of bank assets. Most of these bad loans were from their portfolio of about $7 billion
Bank Stocks Getting Crushed, Oil Down $4 Let’s hope that potential home buyers aren’t keeping their down payment monies in the stock market! This morning stock futures are down their limit. At some point it seems that money managers enjoy pushing a certain market one way or the other, and this time it is stocks
Wachovia, being acquired by Wells Fargo, reported a loss of $23.9 billion in the third quarter, its third straight quarterly loss. Wells, who never made a market in the neg-am, pick-a-pay loans, is paying about $14 billion for Wachovia. Wells is also restructuring some balance sheet items in order to stay under the “no bank
The Citi vs. Wells race to buy Wachovia drama is now over, with Citibank stepping out, allowing Wells Fargo to complete the deal for about $11.38b and no FDIC involvement. Click here to see the stats on what this does to their national branch network and total nationwide deposits, and how it compares to other
Fear and greed… greed and fear. They influence our lives, whether it is on the playground or on Wall Street. We’re dealing with fear right now, but at some point greed will step in. Here’s a decent article on fear and greed. Global Bank Loss Estimates The IMF estimates that worldwide, banks may lose $1.4
Fed/Treasury to Buy Short-Term Paper “Commercial paper” is defined as an unsecured, short-term loan issued by a corporation, often for financing accounts receivable and inventories, and typically at a discount which reflects current market rates. In yet another step in showing just how far they will go to help alleviate the crisis, the U.S. Federal
As the attorneys for Wells and Citi grapple over Wachovia, and their pick-a-pay portfolio, I am trying to figure out who to contact there regarding selling them some of my worthless belongings: Burgundy Members-Only jacket Commodore 64 PC Best of Milli Vanilli cassette tape A Payphone I’ve also heard of a website being set up
The drama continues on the Wachovia acquisition. First it was Citi, then it was Wells, and now it might be Citi and Wells: Under the leading plan being discussed Sunday night, Citigroup and Wells Fargo would divvy up Wachovia’s network of 3,346 branches along geographic lines, with Citigroup getting Wachovia’s branches in the Northeast and
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