– If the stars of yesterday’s going were toxic mortgage twins Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) put in a damned good supporting role. Traders pummeled the bank’s stock after a proposed investment deal with a Korean bank fell through. Lehman’s shares dropped 45%. Lehman wasn’t the only Wall Street bank to fare badly. Financial stocks overall tumbled more than 6%.

– This morning, the bad news continued for Lehman. It told Wall Street it will post a second straight quarterly loss but promised to slim down in the future, putting an end to a brief pre-market rally in its shares.

Central Bank intervention is the reason… Busy data week… Australia’s central bank to mirror the BOE?… China to slow appreciation … And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Early on Monday morning, both gold and silver had smallish rallies going into the Hong Kong open, but that’s where it ended, as selling pressure took metal to their lows of the session until the New York traders showed up for work.