Frontrunning: November 3
- Wall Street cries "Feed Me" or the world will end (Bloomberg)
- RBS, Lloyds get $51 billion in second bailout (Bloomberg)
- Even as Europe raises 2010 growth forecast (AP)
- Mort Zuckerman: Forget inflation, deflation is a bigger danger (USNews)
- States are pondering fraud suits against banks (NYT)
- Retailers "dodge bullet" with CIT November bankruptcy filing (Bloomberg)
- Preparing for another EPS beat: Johnson & Johnson cutting up to 7% of workforce (AP)
- GMAC, CIT provide more reasons to roll up TARP (Reuters)
- Australia increases benchmark interest rate to 3.5% (Bloomberg)
- Monthly bankruptcy filings increase 7% in October (WSJ)
- Buffett buys Burlington Northern for $100/share (Bloomberg)
- Floyd Norris on Fannie and Goldman: Worst idea of 2009 (NYT)
- ADM profit falls 53% as prices and demand fall (WSJ)
- Bernanke housing gamble may bring pressure to extend Fed aid (Bloomberg)
- India buys 200 tons of IMF gold for $6.7 billion, lifts holdings to 557.7 tons (MarketWatch)
- Slide in fees crunches Och-Ziff (WSJ)
»
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on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:00
#118171
Buffett has officially lost it paying a 25% premium for BNI which has over $10 Billion in debt.
BNI is a big coal mover. Cap and Trade will crush them if the economy does not.
This is worse than the bet he made on Irish banks in my opinion.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:06
#118177
Buffett has lots of coal intensive energy interests which C&C will devastate unless he has an offset = Railroads
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:07
#118179
Perhaps he has become Francisco d'Anconia...
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 12:29
#118386
BRK.A has a p/e of 52. Seems rather high but I'm not about to argue with the market.
Just when you thought bankstas couldn't do any more damage by destroying neighborhoods and families by foreclosing and refusing to do workouts... they have a new, better plan for even more destruction. It's called WALKAWAYS:
(these foreclosers: WFC, GS, and USB are all Warren Buffet holdings)
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/a-new-crisis-lenders-abandon-properties-352642.html
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:00
#118174
Bloomberg to Matt Rose CEO of BNSF on Buffett's aquisition of his company
Is $100/share a fair price?
yes
Who were your investment advisors?
Goldman Sachs & and Evercore
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:07
#118180
Preparing for another EPS beat: Johnson & Johnson cutting up to 7% of workforce
Oh, that's good. Very, very good!
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:04
#118212
+100
"MARK IT ZERO, DUDE"
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:15
#118184
I like Buffett's comment this morning on CNBS that this was as much of a bet on America returning to prosperiety as it was on railroads. Hummmm...
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:25
#118189
I suppose that once you've reached the age of the Oracle, you can make such a bet with full knowledge that you likely won't be above ground to get paid anyway.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:25
#118190
Buffet the ever Patriot - more like AMERICA SUPPORTING BUFFET'S BETS. WFC and AXP and GE are 3 of his holdings which ALL RECEIVED TAXPAYER BAILOUTS -- TARP.
GE notably would be bankrupt / out of business if it wasn't a "bank" and didn't receive TARP.
Corporate socialism / Fascism and Buffet has the nerve to suggest his undying support for America.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:52
#118199
+1
He makes investments in several "Tarp recipients to be" last fall and then goes out flacks for the bailout bill. At that point, I lost any respect I had for Buffet. Hey taxpayer, make my bets golden!
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 12:16
#118368
make that 5 of his holdings. don't forget US Bank and GoldmanSachs.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:26
#118191
Gas pipelines, railroads, it seems to me Buffett is really going after right-of-way for fiber optics. US is behind broadband penetration,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8255695.stm
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:34
#118193
One more trick (Buffett) the market pulls from it's sleeve.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:42
#118195
both SPX and FX down WTF?
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:47
#118197
Futures were down 12(S&P). Always something coming in to prop mkt up.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:53
#118200
I'm going to place a large bet on America too. Sometime in the fall of 2010 when the SPX is closer to 500. I'm not as smart or as patient as Buffett so I have to time it a little better. With a PE of around 50 BRK.A seems like a decent short though, which I hadn't noticed until he got himself on TV this morning.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:54
#118202
When are motor vehicle sales released today?
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:54
#118203
off topic but
in france they have just indicted an ex president for corruption.
if obama wants a second term he is going to have to indulge in serious prosecutions all the way up to the top.
never thought i would say this but its time to copy the french system.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 09:57
#118205
wtf - who/what is jamming SPY?
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:10
#118215
my contact says jpm....locals in the pit are short.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:13
#118218
i hear now at 10:10 eastern time that gs is trying to move market down as well as another player...we shall see
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:15
#118219
Your contact is a liar and a traitor. JPM are the bestest commercial bankers in the country and would never stoop to jamming the markets. The market is looking ahead "5, 10, 20 years from now," as Buffett said. :-)
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:29
#118225
Absolutely. Efficient Market Theory still rules.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125720159912223873.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDD...
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:31
#118230
OK, that was seriously funny.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:43
#118239
Yes. JPM is also short Gold. This must just be a headfake! 1074 and green shooting up.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:53
#118255
Nothing evokes absolute unshakable faith and response-ability like Goldman Sachs. This is total defamation of character and bearing false witness and an afront to our pride evoking American symbol!!!
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:12
#118217
Better not be too inquisitive. We're not supposed to question why the market would shoot up after JNJ announces layoffs and Buffett buys a railroad.
Most likely some weird algorithm that magically got switched on today which correlates SPY with the Transports.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:41
#118235
Was it B&O or Reading? Maybe this is all wrong; maybe he was just misinformed by GS about what he got on his McFlurry in the McDonalds' monopoly game. Stay tuned to see if he says anything about landing on GO or buying St. Charles Place.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:42
#118236
Was it B&O or Reading? Maybe this is all wrong; maybe he was just misinformed by GS about what he got on his McFlurry in the McDonalds' monopoly game. Stay tuned to see if he says anything about landing on GO or buying St. Charles Place.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:00
#118206
Not me. I'm jamming Potash.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:27
#118221
re: Bernanke and MBS:
"“When the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgages, is there private capital to substitute?” Laurence Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based asset-management firm BlackRock Inc., said in an interview with the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf broadcast on Bloomberg Television Oct. 28. “At the moment, it is not certain.”"
That is a polite way of saying NO!!!
Fink would know, it is his cronies who are doing the buying for the Fed.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:30
#118227
ghost, saw that and thought of you immediately. linked to the whole bloomberg article in FOMC post.
thanks for all your color on this issue.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:51
#118254
if risk-adjusted yields hit 10%, i bet even Bill Gross couldn't turn that down (!)
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 11:55
#118341
Oh, there are buyers of Fannie/Freddie MBS at a price.
Just not today's price.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:49
#118253
The NYT article on state attorney generals' plans to sue the banks for mortgage lending misses a key element. How will they sue mortgage firms that went bankrupt? For every WM absorbed by JPM (and Countrywide by BAC), there were many more Ameriquest and New Century outlets running their issuance machinery from home base in Southern Cali.
It's the non-bank mortgage finance firms who provided the greater collective volume on crappy sub-prime and AltA mortgages. Which of course were sold onward (then sold again) and servicing released to a 3rd party firm. Nearly 0% risk, what could be better in a lightly-regulated segment.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 11:24
#118289
Would you play Reggie Jackson in this World Series?. Buffett has been striking out for a long time and has to rely on Govt bailouts to save his as_. I guess he likes bubble TV and the young girls who interview him. Shareholders still believes in him and that's what counts. It's his marbles.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 11:29
#118308
Buffett and a RR. Hmmm.
This move was predictable and it is a bet against recovery. Buffett is betting on very high transportation costs (oil) and wants to own channels for food distribution and raw materials, and he gets both with BNI. With high transportation costs trucking will be at a premium.
Buffett's only problem, which my guess has already been solved, is using somebody elses money to pay for RR repair, upgrades and infrastructure, stimulus 2 perhaps, or a new infrastructure revitalization legislation. He must have this one already in the bag.
Now he needs to link up with a cross provincial Canadian RR, and bingo, hello weak dollar. Once he controls the transportation channels he will use this leverage to buy coal interests, mining interests and food production. His approach is straight from the Rockefeller play book.
Warren is a chip off the old block.
on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 19:32
#119131
Excellent analysis, MB. RR and oil were how the old boyz made the bigggg greens.
TARP II is the big moneymaker and the boyz see....ahem, KNOW.. it's coming. RR upgrades, bridges, transportation corridor spending. Just like the Hoover Dam and TVA projects.....put the sheeple to work with government jobs, picks and shovels, and they won't bitch so much and unemployment goes down before the '10 election guts the Dems.
It's in the playbook . A crisis opportunity. Thank you for this insight.