Archive - May 2009 - Story

Just when we thought the heat-seeking short squeeze in credit land may be subsiding, three new bonds rip tighter: old shorter max-pain name Neiman Marcus, whose bonds tightened by 540 bps, Graham Packaging which ripped by 550 bps and Huntsman Int'l which tightened by 425 bps. As in the last week, the rolling equity squeeze in unique stocks and sectors has caused comparable squeezes in corresponding highly-shorted credits.

As expected, the first salvo in the Chrysler war was fired today by the now infamous and much maligned Non-TARP secured lenders (the group represented by Tom Lauria of White & Case). Just hitting the Chrysler bankruptcy docket is an objection filed by W&C on behalf of its clients, objecting to the 363 asset sale. The filing is attached below (and linked here). Some very harsh language with regards to Uncle Sam in there.

The Friend-O treatment that secured bondholders seem to be poised to get as a result of the administration's "preferentializing" of unions, may make some of these bids a tad soft in the coming week. Biggest loan movers for this past week below.

source: Loanconnector.com

• BofA and Citi in last push on stress tests, both plan to raise $10 billion in capital (FT)
• General Motors bankruptcy probable as Obama favors UAW over bondholders (Bloomberg)
• How big banks want to game the mortgage mess (WSJ)
• Obama seeks to end tax haven rules that save companies $190 billion (

Early attempts to jam the USD into the stratosphere and recreate the carry trade have failed miserably. Definitely will not be the last time on this late Sunday night/early Monday morning as fat fingered currency traders try to soak up the spilled moccachino from between the keys of their Bloomberg keyboards.

Early attempts to jam the USD into the stratosphere and recreate the carry trade have failed miserably. Definitely will not be the last time on this late Sunday night/early Monday morning as fat fingered currency traders try to soak up the spilled moccachino from between the keys of their Bloomberg keyboards.

Early attempts to jam the USD into the stratosphere and recreate the carry trade have failed miserably. Definitely will not be the last time on this late Sunday night/early Monday morning as fat fingered currency traders try to soak up the spilled moccachino from between the keys of their Bloomberg keyboards.

For all readers interested (and able) in seeing the drama of the most critical bankruptcy since Lehman unwind in real life, the hearing over Chrysler's First Day Motions will be held tomorrow at 10:00 am in New York Bankruptcy Court at 1 Bowling Green, and is open to the general public (do not bring weapons: there is a metal detector for some paranoid reason).

In a story becoming more bizarre by the minute, ABCNews has now picked up on the Perella Weinberg scent with some new twists. According to ABC, White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton claims that the allegations by Tom Lauria, global head of the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency at White & Case are "completely untrue".

• The DTCC's CNS naked short selling residue (Deep Capture) - must read for everyone curious about regulation SHO and the gimmickry going on in the equity shorting market.
• How Lehman got its real estate fix (New York Times)
• More glowering optimism from Templeton's Mark Mobius, who sees an EM bull market, and a boost to Mexican EPS despite H1B1 (

• The DTCC's CNS naked short selling residue (Deep Capture) - must read for everyone curious about regulation SHO and the gimmickry going on in the equity shorting market.
• How Lehman got its real estate fix (New York Times)
• More glowering optimism from Templeton's Mark Mobius, who sees an EM bull market, and a boost to Mexican EPS despite H1B1 (

Submitted by Jeff Clark, Editor of BIG GOLD

Gold isn’t going to $2,000 an ounce.

Before you gag on your coffee or suffer chest pains, allow me to explain.

We’re about eight years into the bull market, and gold has breached the $1,000 level twice and has spent weeks trading above the old high of $850. Some observers are now saying that gold’s pretty much had its day and that once the recession is over, it will retreat for good.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of discussion of Goldman Sachs' principal program trading dominance in the NYSE, culminating with none other than Goldman Sachs themselves providing their perspective on the matter, via spokesman Ed Canaday:

The NYSE report that Zero Hedge discussed shows Goldman Sachs trading over 1 billion shares in the principal program trading category. What the table doesn’t show, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals is that the vast majority of this total is trades by our quantitative trading desk.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of discussion of Goldman Sachs' principal program trading dominance in the NYSE, culminating with none other than Goldman Sachs themselves providing their perspective on the matter, via spokesman Ed Canaday:

The NYSE report that Zero Hedge discussed shows Goldman Sachs trading over 1 billion shares in the principal program trading category. What the table doesn’t show, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals is that the vast majority of this total is trades by our quantitative trading desk.

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