Ambac And MBIA Insurance ‘AA’ Ratings Affirmed And Taken Off CreditWatch; Outlook Negative
NEW YORK Aug. 14, 2008–Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today it affirmed its ‘AA’ financial strength ratings on both MBIA Insurance Corp.
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
Credit markets were flat in both Europe and North America today, with some dismal economic news failing to trigger a broad-based sell-off.
The eurozone economy contracted for the first time since its formation nearly a decade ago,
(H/T @JackRyanBauer)
The folks over at EconomPicData have produced some fine charts breaking down the components of July’s US consumer price inflation data.
Makes for grim viewing.
Related links:
Where to put your money? Emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China seem to be losing their shine on political uncertainty, lower commodity prices and concern that the U.S.’ subprime crisis is spreading outward.
On FT Alphaville this morning,
- Deutsche bulges: how shrunken financial pie might be re-cut post-Crunch.
- Hormonal traders, redux.
- US foreclosures jump in July… as house prices tumble.
- Goldbugs,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:01 on 14 Aug 2008. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Bryce Elder (BE) PM:testing PM:testing PM:See my tan hasnt washed off yet
From British Land this morning:
At 122 Leadenhall demolition and preparation of the sub-structure is proceeding satisfactorily; however, we are reviewing timing of construction and target completion in order to optimise cost and occupational demand.
Yes, FT Alphaville’s daily market chat is back in business after a short summer break.
Help Bryce Elder help Paul Murphy to catch up with events. There is much speculation to discuss.
Hit the tab above or click here at 11am.
Foreclosure filings in the US rose 8 per cent month-on-month in July, and 55 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac.
On a more granular level,
It’s turning into one of the themes of the summer: how a shrunken financial pie might be re-cut post-Crunch. And on Thursday analysts at Bernstein went so far as to suggest that this reallocation of revenue could prove to be the most significant longer-term consequence of the current IB mess.
China will have its Olympic rivals eating (gold) dust, if the prediction markets over at tradesports.com are to be believed.
The odds are strongly in favour of the home team, with China having a 79 per cent probability of winning the most gold medals,
We’re not sure how new this is but thought it might be worthwhile given talk of oil bubbles, China bubbles, hyper-bubbles, et al. recently.
From New Scientist, via Infectious Greed, and further reinforcing the notion that traders are more jacked up on hormones and herd mentality than a Texan longhorn.
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- “Insolvent versus profoundly insolvent: Fannie Mae, part I, part II, part III”
- “If the “subprime crisis” was about “exotic securities,” the “Alt-A crisis” is going to be about bank balance sheets.
Comment and analysis from Thursday’s FT:
Editorial Comment: Shoot the doves
That the Bank of England will get its interest rate policy wrong is highly likely, so uncertain are the prospects for the economy.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were Wednesday night nearing settlements with regulators to buy back billions of dollars worth of auction rate securities from investors, people briefed on the negotiations said.
A consortium of the biggest US cinema chains is closing in on a $1bn deal that will pave the way for a new generation of money-spinning 3-D movies, after securing provisional backing from three key Hollywood studios.
UnionBanCal, California’s second-largest bank, rejected Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s $3bn bid to buy full control of the lender as too low, reports Bloomberg. The $63-a-share offer is “not in the best interest of UnionBanCal’s minority stockholders,”
Sterling plunged against the euro and the dollar on Wednesday as the Bank of England gave its bleakest economic assessment for more than a decade and financial markets priced in a series of interest rate cuts.
A global recession is widely expected by fund managers as the credit crunch marks its anniversary by mutating from a financial crisis into a world economic downturn, Merrill Lynch reckons. Almost one-quarter
Genentech on Wednesday rejected an unsolicited $43.7bn takeover bid from its majority owner Roche but suggested it would consider a higher offer. The US group, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies,
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman expects that US house prices will begin to stabilise in the first half of next year, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Home prices in the US are likely to start to stabilise or touch bottom sometime in the first half of 2009,”
Apollo Global Management, the private equity group, will on Thursday face questions from investors about the fate of its poorly performing Amsterdam-listed fund after its US parent company revealed a first-quarter loss of $96.4m.
US regulators’ move to restrict “naked” short selling in 19 financial stocks had little impact on prices according to a study, although trading was down 63 per cent during the period the rule was implemented,
Royal Bank of Scotland’s efforts to offload businesses suffered a setback on Wednesday when the UK banking group scrapped the sale of its operations in Australia and New Zealand after the last remaining bidder dropped out.
Sir John Craven, chairman of Lonmin, accused the City of short-termism and defended the performance of the platinum mining group, which is facing a £5bn hostile takeover bid from Xstrata. In an interview with the FT in which he set out Lonmin’s defence strategy,
HBOS, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, is to cut 425 jobs and close one of its five mortgage brands to new business as it aims to streamline costs. The bank, which recently reported a 72 per cent slump in first-half profits to £848m and saw its £4bn rights issue shunned by most investors,
Since the credit crunch hit last year, the distressed debt industry has been undergoing a somewhat surprising shake-up. In recent months, bankers in distressed debt trading, research or proprietary investing have been quietly leaving long-held positions.
Asian markets (Thurs)
03:20am BST
Nikkei down 39.16 at 12,983.89
Topix down 7.08 at 1,239.40
Hang Seng down 41.00 at 21,252.32
US markets (Wed)
DJIA down 109.51 at 11,532.96
Nasdaq down 1.99 at
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