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Bloomberg – The Bush administration will invest about $125 billion in nine of the biggest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in the government’s latest attempt to shore up confidence in the financial system.
The proposed cash injections in exchange for preferred shares are part of a $700 billion rescue approved by Congress and follow similar moves by European leaders to unfreeze credit markets by helping beleaguered banks. The other companies are Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., said people briefed on the plan.
Reuters – John Paulson, a U.S. hedge fund manager who gained a superstar reputation with a big bet against the U.S. housing market, was shown holding a 1 billion pound ($1.9 billion) bet against UK banks as short sellers were forced to disclose their positions.
Paulson & Co., run by John Paulson and based in New York, said it had a 1.2 percent short position in Barclays, worth over 350 million pounds, a 1.8 percent short position in Lloyds TSB, and short positions of just under 1 percent in Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS.
The stakes were unveiled on Wednesday after Britain’s regulator imposed a ban on short-selling financial stocks last Friday, which was followed by similar moves in the United States and elsewhere.
istockAnalyst.com- Investors face something of a new landscape in financial markets this week after tumbling oil and food prices eased immediate concerns about inflation, potentially freeing central banks to fight slow economic growth.
The focus, however, will also be on some old stalwarts – a continuing stream of corporate earnings reports and the U.S. employment report for July, a monthly bellwether for the health of the American economy.
The past two weeks have seen major declines on commodity markets, which until recently were booming. They had provided investors with gains but also headaches because of the impact of higher prices on companies and economies.
That has now turned around. Since hitting a record above $147 a barrel on July 11, oil has fallen 15 percent.
Food prices have seen similar moves. Wheat is down 18 percent in the past month while corn has lost 25 percent.
From a broad investor perspective, this can be good news, assuming it continues.
