“Fire at JPMorgan– top floor of 270 Park (which has a kitchen), fire dept just arrived.”
Archive for May 2010
Back in March, Lindsay Lohan filed a suit against E*Trade, claiming that the baby in the brokerage’s latest commercial was based on her life. Lohan came to this conclusion because the character’s name is Lindsay, she’s referred to as a “milk-a-holic,” and there’s a suggestion that the young one is a man-stealing tramp (she also claimed that though the name “Lohan” is never mentioned, she’s attained first name recognition. Plus, the stuff about the baby being a strung out slut). For the grave offense, Lohan demanded the spots pulled, and $100 million for the emotional distress they caused her. At the time, E*Trade said the bitch be crazy, and claimed that they used the name Lindsay because it’s “a popular baby name” and not because they were trying to insinuate that Lohan is some sort of strung out whore (baby). Now the company is defending itself via comments that have been made online about Linds, a defense I don’t really understand but can appreciate nonetheless.
Lohan is “a pot-stirring, lazy, irresponsible, disrespectful little drama queen,” the papers — filed in Nassau County Supreme Court — quote one on-line commenter as saying.
Our long national nightmare of a CNBC sans Druries is finally over. You can take a deep breath. The gang’s all here. (Not surprisingly, the CNBC wardrobe department has opted to take things slow– no need to blow their load on Day 1, amiright?)
Since we did two of these when the markets were in a tailspin last week, we thought it only fair run an early Call the Close contest when all indications point to a big triple-digit gain.
We’ll see if those fat fingers and high-frequency trading systems have the same impact on the way up. Dow futures were up as much as 400 early this morning.
Ready, Go!
Goldman Sachs Expects More Investigations (Reuters)
“We anticipate that additional putative shareholder derivative actions and other litigation may be filed, and regulatory and other investigations and actions commenced, against us with respect to offerings of (collateralized debt obligations),” the bank said in a statement.
Euphoria Greets EU’s $1 Trillion Rescue (BW)
“This is shock and awe, Part II and in 3-D, with a much bigger budget and a more impressive array of special effects,” said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group in London. “This truly is overwhelming force, and should be more than sufficient to stabilize markets in the near term, prevent panic and contain the risk of contagion,” he said.
European Lawmakers To Unveil Hedge Fund Clampdown (Reuters)
“We want to have clear rules that these managers have to stick to,” said Udo Bullmann, a German Socialist member of the European Parliament who plays a central role in deciding the law. “The hedge funds played a role in the Greek crisis.” Bullmann said the rules would include curbs on pay such as an end to “golden handshakes”, as well as strict limits on private equity investors trying to extract dividends from companies within the first four years of ownership.
SEC Summons Exchange Chiefs To Washington (WSJ)
Mary Schapiro wants to examine ways to prevent a recurrence of the plunge, including possible short-term fixes, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting is expected to address how disparate trading rules, such as different circuit breakers at the NYSE compared with those elsewhere, may have affected trading. Duncan Niederauer and Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld agreed to attend the meeting, as did execs with BATS Global Markets and Direct Edge.
Hedge Funds Gain More Than 1% In April, Paulson Shines (WSJ)
Paulson’s Recovery fund, which invests in financial institutions that need new capital, jumped 6.83% in April, up more than 25% YTD. Paulson’s gold fund, which the firm launched at the start of 2010, returned almost 10% in April, up more than 4% YTD.
Rare Manet Self-Portrait Is Going To Auction (NYT)
Steve C has owned it for over ten years- now he’s bored of it and it can be yours June 22 when it’s expected to go for $30.1 million to $45.2 million.
Feds Probing JPMorgan’s Silver Market Trades (NYP)
“The probes are centering on whether or not JPMorgan, a top derivatives holder in precious metals, acted improperly to depress the price of silver, sources said. The CFTC is looking into civil charges, and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is handling the criminal probe, according to sources, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information. The probes are far-ranging, with federal officials looking into JPMorgan’s precious metals trades on the London Bullion Market Association’s exchange, which is a physical delivery market, and the Nymex for future paper derivative trades.”
Moodys Served Well’s Notice By SEC (Moody’s)
The ratings agency maintains its innocence. Continue reading »
$$$ Greenspan Says Lehman Failure Unleashed `Most Virulent‘ Crisis in History [Bloomberg]
$$$ Congress wants review of market plunge [AP]
$$$ Finra’s Ketchum: ‘Shock absorbers’ are a must [Investment News]
$$$ Blankfein On The SEC [CNBC]
Fat finger or not, the Nasdaq is in an official correction, down 10 percent from its high earlier this year. CNBC has the nanobox going and the Dow is off 133 points. With a half hour left in the session, it’s time to call the close. Have at it.
Animal lover
Pay a visit to that mansion, however, and it quickly becomes clear that life chez Falcone is more like a sitcom than a Cinderella remake. On a snowy day in February, Lisa Maria, whose olive green cargo pants and cardigan are neatly color coordinated with a hefty heart-shaped emerald ring, is nuzzling her pet pig, Wilbur, while a cat purrs in the corner and a veritable flock of tiny dogs yaps away behind a baby gate. “I just love animals, I can’t help it!” she shouts over the delighted squeals of the pig, who is being fed a carrot by the cook. Wilbur, Falcone says, can play the piano and will perform spins if prompted with a Cheerio. “I used to walk him to the park until one day I had somebody taking a picture of me and the pig,” she says. “I thought, Oh, my God! I can see it now. My husband will lose his whole business, and it will be me, the pig, five dogs, a cat and my daughters out on the street, no place to live!”
A small business lender once targeted by David Einhorn agreed today to settle fraud charges by the Justice Department for $26.3 million. The settlement, from Ciena Capital (once part of Allied Capital Corp.,) also resolves a whistleblower lawsuit by Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital.
Greenlight, and co-plaintiff James Brickman, will receive $4.3 million as part of the settlement. The feds charged Ciena with defrauding the Small Business Administration when they sought payments on federally-backed loans they made and serviced. The loans, which eventually defaulted, violated SBA rules and underwriting standards. Continue reading »
In addition to putting up a fancy new website, Raj Rajaratnam and his lawyers filed a motion today to suppress the government’s wiretap evidence.
(Bonus: Check out the glamour shots of Raj)
In a 75-page brief, lawyers for Raj laid out their argument that FBI Special Agent B.J. Kang and the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of Manhattan intentionally misled the court when they sought authorization to secretly listen in on Raj’s cell phone.
Among several examples, the lawyers argue Rajaratnam only discussed publicly-available information on phone calls with Roomy Khan, a confidential witness in the case, as opposed to any material insider info. Continue reading »
So suck it, Dick Bové, suck it, Wall Street Journal, suck it CNBC, suck it shareholder Evelyn Davis, who demanded LB resign “on Monday,” suck it anyone who even entertained the thought of a Goldman Sachs sans Blankfein. LB has “no intention of doing that,” nor is he interested in the harebrained proposal to split the CEO and chairman role, as delightful as Ms. Davis’s suggestion that role of the latter should go to “the former chairman of Sara Lee” may be. And you want to know something else? He was lying when he said he shops at Wal-Mart.
