On FT Alphaville this week,
- The fallout in the debt markets continued to be felt by the banks. Share prices have been rocky all week,
- On Monday, markets responded to news of a massive $8-11bn writedown from Citi. In the wake of Chuck Prince’s departure, Win Bischoff took the helm. Analysts at CIBC continued to assert that Citi would have to slash its dividend.
- And fears about banks’ exposures to Collateralized Debt Obligations first surfaced as a theme that would run through the week.
- On Tuesday FT Alphaville revealed that Citi had doubled its CDO exposure during the height of the credit crunch - buying an astounding $25bn in commercial paper from CDOs.
- From level three to cloud nine: the banks that are guilty of using controversial accounting techniques to hide writedowns.
- Who’s going to hedge heaven, and who’s in hedge hell?
- On Wednesday, Citi analysts warned that some banks might have to think the unthinkable and consider recapitalisation: beware the ueber-leveraged trio, Barclays, RBS and Deutsche.
- And if you thought fear was driving MBS prices to breaking point, then fear some more: fundamentals, not illiquidity, are causing the crash.
- Roger Ehrenberg vents his spleen: who’s to blame for the credit crunch?
- Down 12.5 per cent this year. 3.5 per cent this month. 1.5 per cent this week. The dollar slide is accelerating.
- On Thursday, you (almost) heard it hear first: BHP Billiton launched a bid for Rio Tinto.
- Banks’ writedowns began to look small: the ABX index crashed 7 points on Wednesday.
- What’s Ben thinking? Where the Fed will go, via the speeches of Frederic Mishkin.
- On Friday, the slump in debt markets got deeper. Commercial paper issuance fell to new lows.
- Could the dollar’s decline get violent?
- Will monoline insurers be the next domino to fall?
- UK banks took a hammering in morning trade: Barclay’s fell 9 per cent - so fast that its book on the LSE was temporarily suspended while deals were ironed out.
- Driving the banking rout? Fears of a firesale in assets underlying CDOs got closer to reality as Standard & Poor’s reveals the first CDO to go into liquidation, with 13 more poised to follow.
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