Archive - Oct 2009 - Story
October 31st
Fuld's Last Stand On Auction
Submitted by Marla Singer on 10/31/2009 20:17 -0500
The more observant and aesthetically sensitive ZH reader will have already noticed that Tranche 1 of the Lehman Brothers Collection (hereinafter known as the LBHI Creditors Committee ["LBHI-CC"] Collection) (warning: 50+ MB .pdf) will come under the hammer tomorrow at noon. The 300+ lots include significant works by Bernar Venet, Willie Cole, Arturo Herrera, Pouran Jinchi, Louis Lozowick, Roy Lichtenstein, Louis [sic] Bourgeouis, Terry Frost, Bernice Abott, Bernard Cathelin and Herbert Brandl. (No word yet on the various return tiers on the CAOs (Collateralized Art Obligations) that Goldman is underwriting next month.
Radio Zero: It's Not The Costume That Scares Me
Submitted by Marla Singer on 10/31/2009 19:12 -0500Studio Zero's costume party gets revved up after the rest of the evening's events start to wind down. We'll pipe the feed into Radio Zero live as soon as it gets going. Join us for dark beats and light silliness into the wee hours and the (always present) possibility of a cameo drop-in from an A-lister.
Listen here: http://cdo.zerohedge.com:8000/listen.pls
Or pick up our West Coast Mirror (with 1000 slots) here: http://72.13.86.66:8000/listen.pls thanks to the mind-blowing generosity of EGI Hosting.
Chat up the DJ (send your .mp3 files) here: radiozh.
Or... join the real Radio Zero nerds on our IRC server at chat.zerohedge.com #radiozh. If you just can't be bothered with an IRC client, we've provided one for you here. Otherwise, consider getting mIRC.
Shenanigans to begin sometime after 10 ET and before 11ET (maybe).
Halloween 2009
Submitted by Marla Singer on 10/31/2009 15:22 -0500
(Compliments of Zero Hedge's native, one-panel satirist: John).
Observations On Black Swans In Money Markets
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2009 14:36 -0500The attached presentation, from John Taylor of Stanford and John Williams of the SF FRB, prepared in the weekend before the Lehman bankruptcy, and thus in the eye of last year's hurricane, provides some additional insights into money markets, the Fed's TAF program, OIS spreads, and how everything can gospectacularly wrong at mere whiff of that greatest black swan of all, and the one concept all in the financial business take for granted: counterparty risk. With the Fed now actively pursuing the extraction of capital out of money markets instead of primary dealers, the potential liquidity imbalance will be a major threat to the system and will be activelymonitored by Zero Hedge. If the Fed's soothing admonition that it has things in control serves any purpose, it is that sooner rather than later risk flaring and six sigma events will once again be a dailyoccurrence.
While Going Broke Has its "Benefits," Ford Workers Reject Contract Changes
Submitted by Travis on 10/31/2009 13:42 -0500Ah, the perils of not being totally broke. Ford labor unions rejected contract changes that would have allowed Ford, the healthiest of the "Big Three" to cut labor costs consumate with its bankrupt domestic competitors. Even if the competiton is broke... Sometimes, bankruptcy has its benefits.
Hedging Their Bets
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2009 12:58 -0500"How much of the rebound in real GDP was due to the fiscal stimulus, and where do we stand in terms of the effects of stimulus thus far? Although precise answers are impossible at this juncture, several aspects of the report are consistent with our estimates that the fiscal package enacted in mid-February as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would have accounted for virtually all of the growth reported for the third quarter." - Goldman Sachs
NYSE Short Interest Rises 2.8% In First Half Of October
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2009 11:56 -0500
In the first half of October, NYSE short interest as reported staged a moderate comeback, rising by 2.8% sequentially to 13.4 billion shares on October 15th, from 13.1 billion at the end of August, and a 1.1% decline from the 13.6 billion shares short on October 15, 2008. The short interest represented 3.51% of total shares outstanding.
October 30th
Launching CDS Heatmaps
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2009 23:01 -0500
Zero Hedge is starting a presentation of credit heatmaps, specifically CDS: easily the most liquid product in the market currently (unfortunately still not for retail consumption but give it 12 months...)
Our first such heatmap just so happens to coincide with a day in which it may as well be called a redmap. We hope to make this a daily feature on Zero Hedge (the heatmap, not the bloodbath).
FDIC Failure Friday: The Lucky Number 9
Submitted by Marla Singer on 10/30/2009 21:08 -0500Forget our babble. Here's the data.
Won't you please give to UNICEF the FDIC fund this Halloween?
| Failed Bank | City | State | Deposits (in millions) |
Assets (in millions) |
Branches |
| Bank USA, National Assoc. | Phoenix | AZ | $212.8 | $117.1 | 2 |
| California National Bank | Los Angeles | CA | $7,792.2 | $6,160.4 | 68 |
| San Diego National Bank | San Diego | CA | $3,608.1 | $2,892.4 | 29 |
| Pacific National Bank | San Francisco | CA | $2,335.3 | $1,762.8 | 18 |
| Park National Bank | Chicago | IL | $4,706.1 | $3,730.9 | 30 |
| Community Bank of Lemont | Lemont | IL | $81.8 | $81.2 | 1 |
| North Houston Bank | Houston | TX | $326.2 | $308.0 | 2 |
| Madisonville State Bank | Madisonville | TX | $256.7 | $225.2 | 1 |
| Citizens National Bank | Teague | TX | $118.2 | $97.7 | 2 |
| OUCH: | $19,437.4 | $15,375.7 | 151 |
Icahn Discloses Plans For CIT
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2009 19:38 -0500CIT is now certain to file for bankruptcy over the weekend, after it was unable to obtain the requsite number of consents for its exchange offer. The only question is whether or not the bankruptcy will be a pre-packaged, in which bondholders will accept specific haircuts or if it will be a free fall Chapter 11, which would likely promptly devolve into a Chapter 7 liquidation, if creditors are unable to come to a non-blocking agreement. In an odd development today the firm announced that it had chosen Icahn to provide an incremental $1 billion DIP for when the company does file. By doing so, the BOD and the executive committee basically kissed their jobs goodbye: Icahn has been vocal and extremely critical of everyone at the fancy-lobbied firm at 505 Fifth.
Fannie Mae Seriously Delinquent Rate Hockeysticks to 4.45% From 1.57% In Prior Year
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2009 17:31 -0500
The FNM "seriously delinquent" rate has gone parabolic, increasing by roughly 5% sequentially and just under 300% YoY. As mere text will simply not do this metric justice, please enjoy this chart of the dataset from Blytic. It tells you all you need to know about the Fed's containment of the housing problem.
Radio Zero: Anti-Halloween Week
Submitted by Marla Singer on 10/30/2009 17:10 -0500The market has been in anti-Halloween mode the last two quarters, cleverly hiding its true nature under a placid costume before exposing its real hockey mask clad self on Halloween weekend. How perfectly contrarian!
Join us, again, for a contrarian night at Studio Zero, where Radio Zero will bring you all the musicial highlights of our annual Halloween blow out party in real time as it happens. Early morning (East Coast time) linger for our traditional (invited) anonymous A-List DJ of the night- an exceptional treat with the most gob-smacking hard beats, no tricks (we promise).
Our test broadcast begins, well, now. Live stuff from yours truly? Think 6:30 - 7:00ish ET. The heat of the party? You'll know it when you hear it.
Listen here: http://cdo.zerohedge.com:8000/listen.pls
Or pick up our West Coast Mirror (with 1000 slots) here: http://72.13.86.66:8000/listen.pls thanks to the mind-blowing generosity of EGI Hosting.
Chat up the DJ (send your .mp3 files) here: radiozh.
Or... join our IRC server at chat.zerohedge.com #radiozh. If you just can't be bothered with an IRC client, we've provided one for you here. Otherwise, consider getting mIRC. You might find it useful in connection with new features Zero Hedge before too long... but if I tell you more about that I will have to buy your puts in size.
Daily Credit Summary: October 30 - Vermicious Knids
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2009 16:50 -0500Spreads were broadly wider in the US as all the indices deteriorated (as IG and HY closed at their wides with the former making its largest jump wider since 10/01). IG trades 7.8bps wide (cheap) to its 50d moving average, which is a Z-Score of 1.3s.d.. At 109bps, IG has closed tighter on 63 days so far this year (217 trading days) and we note that the distance to the average is getting close to its largest since this rally began (a critical break over 9-10bps above the average would suggest we are in a new era. Yesterday's crack of IG not being able to break the 50-day average (while technical nonsense) is notable in that we have not seen an upside break and unsuccessful test of the average since the March rally began in credit.
Is Fed Abandoning Bailout Of Commercial Real Estate
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2009 16:05 -0500In what could have been the biggest piece of news today, yet making little headway into the media, the Fed announced that it is adopting a policy statement supporting "prudent commercial real estate loan workouts." And even though in traditional Fed fashion, the statement says a lot but is even more vague, some of the implications from a more nuanced read have very serious adverse implications for commercial real estate.




