Lehman Brothers led the pack of financial stocks downward this morning, falling to six-year low as investors speculated that the firm might be vulnerable to a run-on-the bank similar to the one that brought down Bear Stearns. This worry continues despite Lehman having announced a new 3-year credit facility of $2 billion dollars and the Federal Reserve opening up the discount window to brokerages houses, a move many regard as specifically aimed at providing liquidity to avoid the fears that fueled the collapse of Bear.
But the pressure on Lehman’s stock continues. Lehman is leveraged more heavily than its Wall Street peers and it is a major player in the mortgage market, the source of much of the pain for Bear Stearns. It recently completed a round of 10% across-the-board layoffs, a move intended to show capital markets that the bank is serious about improving efficiency and cutting costs.
Lehman has yet to report any truly bad news . Its write-offs on the last two quarters of 2007 added up to about $1.6 billion, far below the write-off numbers of some of its peers. But this has ironically fueled market fears—many wonder if Lehman has more exposure than it has let on. Lehman chief executive Dick Fuld has attempted to reassure investors and employees. But the Wall Street Journal’s headline—Lehman Says Liquidity Is Fine—only served to remind investors of similar assurances from Bear last week.
More after the jump.
Lehman Brothers releases their next quarterly earnings report on Tuesday. Although the Federal Reserve has shown a readiness to rescue troubled financial institutions, many wonder whether there is another financial player who would be willing to play the role JP Morgan Chase played with Bear Stearns. What’s more, the near wipe-out of Bear Stearns investors has shown that the government is willing to let shareholders bear the brunt of a Wall Street firm’s collapse while bailing out creditors, customers and counterparties.
The options trading is heavily favoring trouble ahead for Lehman. Option traders were buying more than three-times the number of puts than calls, a sign that traders expect the value of Lehman shares to fall, Rebecca Engmann Darst said on CNBC.
“Option traders keen for protection have bid up the price of the April 10.00 put, which conveys the right to sell Lehman shares at $10 a piece by April’s expiration, to $1.65, despite the fact that the market only assigns about a 3 percent probability of the strike landing in the money by that time,” Darst said.
On a side note, we’re totally crushing out on Rebecca Darst these days. She’s bright, sharp and her machine-gun fire on-air delivery is impressive. Also, she’s seriously hot. Open letter to CNBC: Please give us more of her. You began Squawk Box an hour early this morning. Let’s make that a regular thing, but focus it on options markets. How about “Waking Up With Rebecca Darst” for an hour each morning? On second thought, that would mean she’ll never accept our invitation to have drinks with us since she’ll have to wake up so early every morning. Scratch the whole thought.
Carney’s straight?
Lehman will live long and prosper.
@1:44pm
Have you seen the way he dresses? No fag I know would be caught dead with his tie collection. I have never seen him dance but if his dancing is anything like his tie collection then odds are he is straight.
Carney’s standards are alarmingly low. Tim Sykes could score better tail than that.
This shit is fucking stupid. Bear goes under so therefore whatever firm is most like bear must also take a hair cut. This is so retarded, i don’t know what else to say.
He has to be a straight WASP. Dodgy rails, bad ties and i am betting (at least 100 shares of BSC) his dancing is pure “white mans overbite”.
These guys are holding a ton of crappy mortgages on their books, I guarantee it. They have a huge mortgage operation there and have been waaaaay too quiet
@ random banker: it’s called the madness of crowds. just like new york cops, it’s shoot first and ask questions later (did I just say that), jokes, I joke. it reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_nM5NkQzs unfortunately, no one has yet to sit down at the table and think about what is really going on here. the end is here/near, get your dollars ready, because there are a few screaming buys out there.
carney, what do I get if I run past erin b with a deal breaker sign? I could be there in 20 min…
The assumption here seems to be that Irish is a subset of WASP, which is totally wrong.
@ 2:06 PM
I heard the same a few weeks ago.
I’ll leave the evaluation of dancing to others. But I recently inherited a large volume of knit ties from my grandfather and they are currently my favorites. I’m pretty sure, however, that this probably supports the straight/dresses-badly theory you guys have going here.
Also, I’m only about 1/4 WASP. The rest of my bloodline is wondering when we can start drinking to celebrate Saint Patrick vanishing the snakes from Ireland.
Finally, let’s leave the poor women who have been victims of my advances out of it. They are innocent parties who deserve to be left in peace.
A lot of folks thought Bear was a screaming buy last thursday, when it traded in the low $50s
Good chance that Carney was an altar boy.
I can take one bank collapse this month. I don’t know if I can take Lehman disappearing too. Plus we actually use them on stuff so that’d be annoying. There energy group is fairly decent.
On a related note, CIT is down 30+%…
… Am I the only one who say “Individual Investor” on CNBC today? He was in all his glory. bought into Bear at the close on friday…. nothing wrong with that
would agree with you but the nice transparency gained through such reclassification of Level 3 assets leaves one a touch nervous.
There was a guy on another board who on Friday claimed he had just bought 1000 of BSC at $32.00. He sort of admitted he was reckless by doing so. But haven’t heard from him since.
carney:
1)not a great dresser- certainly not snazzy but i dont think thats important to him anyway..considering his alter-ego is a jewish girl from NJ, you’d think he’d be somewhat fashionable though– or the kids at fashionista.com would give him a makeover or something. (hint, he is in SERIOUS need of a tan- frighteningly pale)
2)he thinks the girls he’s with are cute, and thats all that matters, bc someone needs to be with the ugly girls. maybe it’s the catholic in him doing charity work or something
3)no knowledge re his dancing but perhaps it’s surprisingly good
4) i have reason to suspect he enjoys karaoke
i will say nothing more out of respect for him and the readers
Diablo:
The “individual investor” who bot 1k @ 32 probably blew out his ameritrade account.
-mrp
What’s the deal with this so-called Bess person?
Does she exist? I hope so because I think I love her. (Is she a “carney girl”?)
Frightening pale is definitely accurate.
@2:39
So Carney is the white/pasty guy, with “retro” knit ties, partially drunk most days by noon (as evidenced by his editing (or lack thereof), who gave up a good job in law to edit a blog….. – and he is the one giving the charity? Something tells me he maybe on the recieving end of some charity (and not just from his alter ego/left hand).
Jim Cramer on CNBC getting very defensive about his stance on BSC. This guy is ridiculous. He was telling people on his show to snap up Bear shares at $105, now hes defending telling people to keep their cash there. He should not be on TV talking to people in Middle America who don’t know better. He’s wrong way more than hes right, and it’s well documented.
Jim Cramer on CNBC getting very defensive about his stance on BSC. This guy is ridiculous. He was telling people on his show to snap up Bear shares at $105, now hes defending telling people to keep their cash there. He should not be on TV talking to people in Middle America who don’t know better. He’s wrong way more than hes right, and it’s well documented.
I guess I’m one of the ugly girls, eh.
At least JC lays off the hair gel, the cheesy striped shirts, and the orange fake-bake. I’m sure many of you out there could learn something from him.
I cannot, however, defend the karaoke charges.
Hearing Barclays may snatch up LEH
Don’t see too much in the way of hair gel or fake bake on WS. Re the striped shirts…. would that be like from Pink, et al? Why is that cheesy?
@ golden girl
where/who are you hanging around that you see that?? Growing Up Gotti or Murray Hill? gag.
@2:53 – interesting how cramer’s now saying he was referring to institutional investors with money at bear when he said to leave the money there and that he “obviously wasn’t talking about the common stock” which he says he called worthless … um, what? since when are callers into his show like, hedge fund guys wondering if they should keep their assets with prime brokerage? the whole show is practically based on common stock. please.
as an unbiased third party, I will vouch for @golden girl not being ugly. but I’m not sure that’s who @2:39 was referring to…
@2:53 – cramer is a recluse, he basically just said that he’s a stock pumper. wtf? he should have just kept his mouth shut – who needs that kind of “advice”?
@3:12 – don’t think i’ve been to murray hill in about a year, god willing, but i do work in the financial district. hair gel and striped shirts = unavoidable.
@golden girl
orange tans and hair gel? wtf? i would gander a guess that you commute from s.i.
but if you were the girl that was dressed up as a slutty santa at brunch then yeah, you are pretty hot.
I’m dressed as a slutty leprechaun, but sure.
@ golden girl
i thought the reference to slutty santa would give a hint that it might not have been today that you could have been wearing that outfit. i am holding out hope that i will find a smart blonde broad, please don’t ruin it for me.
ignore it gg, I think you are magically delicious.
@golden girl
sorry for the slight, i apologize. any chance you would consider posting a pic? do it for mankind.
Well there is something hot about a guy who wears a knit tie set off with a slight albino facial hue….I am not being facetious.
Totally agree with “golden girl”. I swear to god some of those guys are wearing bronzer!
Slutty leprechaun and batman – i think i have seen that movie…..
Bruce Wayne: Forgiven this once, but if you ever again suggest that I am from Staten Island, I shall cut you.
What’s wrong with the coat and ties? it wouldn’t hurt the rest of you clowns to take some notes and start dressing properly.
@golden girl
I saw the cutting episode on 7th Heaven, count me in.
In grade school I once threatened to cut a girl with my switchblade comb if she continued to lie about how many cabbage patch dolls she owned. School admin frowned.
@BruceWayne
You must be kidding
I was wondering when “girl” would pipe up, I got the sense she was feeling a bit left out. and for he record, we all know that batman is gay…
redpandot
‘fraid not. between that and the time i beat up a white kid for claiming he was born in africa (turns out his folks were missionairies) i was dubbed a problem child.
investorcluzo
i am bi you idiot. robin was just a phase i was going through. u cant tell me u have never been in the gym shower and seen suds run down the crack of a man’s ass and not thought about love.
wow JC really does have a thing for girls dressed as slutty santas.
i think girl and golden girl should get a tag team going and dress as skanky santas…carney can wear his knit tie, and only his knit tie.
maybe make a vid and send it FBN as the commercial for dealbreaker
He’s not lying, I remember it like it was yesterday, I bent over to pick up the soap and BAM! batpole up the ass.
–Alfred
perhaps throw gasparino in as a cameo…and get that jimmy cayne look alike to dance in his undies…this commercial is shaping up
@Brucewayne: sweet mother of mary joseph! I think you’re on the wrong site, I think you’re looking for “manhunt”…I knew there was a reason I didn’t like the bally’s gym downtown. damn, I have to go take another shower because this feels so dirty!
For the record, it seems we have two types of commenters on this thread. Those who think I am too pale, dress poorly and don’t approve of my women. And then the other type, who appreciate my ties, my jackets, and happen to be women who like me.
I’m more than happy to admit that if you think a man should be well-tanned I neither want to dress like you think I should or hang around with women you approve of.
Thanks for playing.
JC,
I remember you with a slutty santa Jewish girl way back – Jessica, Jillian or something. If you got past 2nd with her I bow down in your presence.
Cluzo,
Are you kidding? Between slim jim, mr pink, and L.Craig this is gayest gay-frendly site I visit.
I’m insulted that you forgot me. GAnalYst
Maybe its because I’m a slave to my desk, butt I have not seen these guido-esque ‘my new haircut’ types in Financial District of which you ladies speak, maybe they all work at DoucheBank (and consequently frequent Pink)…
alright there bruce wayne, lets not start dropping ppls names.
i’m from SI, and def have seen ppl who Golden Girl describe.
personally, i hate paleness– i think everyone should be tan.
i have only seen carney in one tie and it had skull-n-bones on it.
i do have an affinity for costumes.
back to the girl/golden girl/carney/cayne/gasparino commercial
I cannot believe no one commented that I sport my own personal scent. It’s made of burnt tobacco and whiskey. I’ll be marketing it all over town in about two minutes.
I believe everyone should be just the color they are. But I’m Catholic, as someone mentioned.
BruceWayne:
LOL Welcome.
-mrp