October 2008

PNC, down only 13% this year-to-date, very good for a bank stock, is acquiring beleaguered Ohio bank NCC for $5.5 billion. The price represents a huge discount to the prevailing market price before open today and NCC was down 34% in early…

Where can we start? There is so much news - all of it negative, I have news coming out of my ears. Let me do this news round-up a bit more like a live-blogging session then.All of this started, in my opinion, because credit markets seized…

Due to the market crash today, I will be making extra heavy posts. But, rather than over-post on the blog, I will be posting news items in the News Feed. Please check My News Feed in the sidebar.

The 30-Year U.S. Treasury began to be issued in 1977. It's yield at 3.86% is a record low as a flight to safety is underway. I have to repeat: this is a market crash.

Subscribe to my News Feed   Inequality in major U.S. cities rivals Africa: U.N. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Major U.S. cities including New York, Washington, Atlanta and New Orleans have levels of economic inequality that rival…

The news on markets around the world is particularly dire this morning. Despite a late day rally in the U.S., markets in Asia and Europe are down as much as 9 and 10% and S&P Futures are 60 limit down. This is going to be a very ugly…

In a recent post I said that I was selectively scanning for value plays at this level. A reader asked me the legitimate question: "Why would anybody buy anything in this market?" Basically, he was questioning my sanity.I am entirely sane…

I am hearing of heavy early voting in the U.S. presidential election. In particular, I have heard stories of heavy voting in Georgia, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina. Apparently, Colorado's exit polls show an enormous 20%+ advantage…

This morning in an e-mail exchange with Marshall Auerback, I questioned why the U.S. Dollar was rising so precipitously. I do understand much of this has to do with a need to refinance dollar-denominated borrowing by international…

Jobless claims came in at 478,000 for the previous week, up from 463,000 the week before. But continuing claims were down 6,000 on the week to 3.720 million from 3.726 million.While the one-week continuing claims number is fine, all…