Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT:
The Short View: Worst day for US stocks
Wall Street has subjected investors to many ugly afternoons since the credit market came unstuck last summer, says John Authers. But there’s a case that Tuesday’s was the ugliest. The boost to risk appetite from the historic takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not even last 24 hours, replaced by new worries about Lehman Brothers. It’s hard to find any positives, except that maybe the market is finally ready to capitulate.
Editorial comment: How the LSE’s meltdown showed it retains its lead
This week’s outage at the London Stock Exchange was highly embarrassing. On what should have been the busiest day of the year, traders were left to do nothing – or to execute trades through one of LSE’s emerging competitors. But start-up trading platforms failed to pick up the slack: the market lacked a reference price, normally provided by the LSE. For the time being, reliance on the LSE secures its lead. It should not bank on this continuing forever.
US housing (1) Analysis: Searching for a floor
After the Freddie and Fannie rescue, is the US house price crash bottoming out?, ask FT reporters.
US housing (2): Comment, Martin Wolf
The rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has almost completed the socialisation of the risks of housing finance. Is it however an example of policymaking that the UK, quite as vulnerable to the collapse in the housing market, should follow? Wolf very much hopes it will not but warns that the pressures on the UK government to act will be strong.
US housing (3): Insight, John Plender
Turning points in bear markets are more often than not signposted by big U-turns in government policy. The de facto nationalisation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by a pro-market Republican administration is a U-turn of huge proportions. It was a prerequisite for underpinning credit and equity markets, but is not sufficient to do the trick.
View of the Day: Currency markets are focusing on the wrong themes
The currency markets are focusing on the wrong themes after the US Treasury’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, argues UBS strategist Mansoor Mohi-uddin.
Lex on the tech sector
The technology sector, it was once hoped, might be a safe haven. But it has proved merely another refuge to be blown away by the winds of the credit crunch. And recovery across the sector will not come until demand shows clear signs of reviving. Historical trends suggest that may not be before the second half of 2009 at the earliest.
Podcast: A new game for businesses
Ade McCormack discusses the book Mesh Collaboration which urges companies to move from a product to a service-based model
Interview: Terry Duffy, CME chairman
As chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Duffy sits at the head of a company that is a serious global competitor to the two super-exchanges that dominate the city: Nasdaq OMX and NYSE-Euronext. After two huge takeovers in as many years, Duffy suggests the CME is unlikely to make more large purchases in the near future and discusses the outlook for his industry.