S&P Slashes RBS Rating; Dendreon’s Big Boost; Eli Lilly Comes Out Ahead on ImClone; AgFeed’s Hungry For Its Own Shares; Bank of America Surprises with Loss; Paulson Taps Another Goldman Exec.
Fortis (FORB) just sold itself to three different European governments. The company lost its deal with China’s Ping An Insurance, and its sale to Deutsche Bank is being held captive by the Dutch Central Bank. But FORB is up 12% today. The hits just keep on coming, but the stock price is still rising.
The European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday (Thursday) held its key interest rate steady at 4.25%, but ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet struck a much less hawkish tone in announcing the decision and may be forced to cut rates before year-end to revive the Eurozone’s shrinking economy.
Claims that the worst of the financial crisis is over have been rubbished by ex-IMF Chief Economist , who yesterday warned that a major U.S. bank is likely to collapse within months.
Money Morning’s William Patalon III says dire warnings like this are becoming more frequent. And the slump in shares for Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) this week is generating more fear among investors.
William says the financial meltdown will keep the Fed from raising interest rates anytime soon. But at a time when inflation is accelerating, this will create more problems down the line…
In currency news, the dollar continued its gains against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.5413 vs. $1.5473 on Wednesday.
Both gold and silver had smallish rallies starting with the open of Globex trading in the Far East on Wednesday. However, all was for naught, because part of the price gains were sold off on the Comex open…and the rest once London had closed for the day.
Both U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke were called to the carpet yesterday (Tuesday) to explain to Congress how continued turbulence in U.S. credit markets will affect the economy in coming months.
Editor’s Note: John Williams at ShadowStats.com warns that major foreign dollar holders could be about to dump the dollar. Meanwhile, a systematic crash in the threadbare US banking system is a distinct possibility thanks to the $391 billion in losses already suffered by US banks as a result of mortgage-related writedowns. All this, says The Mogambo Guru, means good news for gold and silver and a potential meltdown for US stocks, bonds and, of course, the dollar…
European stocks were gutted yesterday (Thursday) as banks took heavy losses in the face of more hawkish inflation comments from European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet that put pressure on already struggling financials.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 closed down 2.6% to 288.48, the worst finish for the Eurozone index since October 2005.
The FTSEurofirst 300 had a 2.5% drop, to close at 1,197.02 points, its largest one-day percentage drop since mid-March, Reuters reported.
Starving for capital and hell-bent on retaining its handsome dividend, Barclays PLC (ADR: pAs much as 1.58 million shares will be sold to existing investors China Investment Bank and Singapore’s stronga href="http://www.temasekholdings.com.sg/" onclick="s_objectID="Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd/a/strongstrong., /strongas well as new investors Japan’s a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?cid=674312" onclick="s_objectID=" finance?cid="674312_1";return">Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Qatar Investment Authority and Challenger – a fund that represents “the beneficial interests” of Qatar’s royal family.
