After dropping as low as $6/share, BCS recovered most of its losses and traded as high as $8, before dropping again. Barclays management "We know of no justifcation for share-price decline". It also expects to report pre-tax profit well ahead of the $5.3bn analyst estimates...

Well, we shall see

The biggest threat to the U.S. Obama rally and the miracle recovery proposed by Democrats in the $825 billion bail out package may possibly reside about 6,000 miles away in Greece.

Mortimer Zuckerman and Michael Steinhard are quoted as saying this whole Madoff ponzi shizzle "shouldn't be considered a Jewish scandal just because there were a large number of Jewish victims".

The market is crashing, the S&P will hit 500 soon, Sotheby's stock is plummeting: is there any way to invest in artistic assets in this environment? Our recommendation - get on the prebuy list for Geoffrey Raymond.

And y'all thought Lyondell is going to be the only spectacular chemical LBO bankruptcy. The list is long and focuses mostly on plastics makers: Ineos, Chemtura and Georgia Gulf. The third-largest producer of polypropylene sealed its fate in 2005 when it bought BP's Innovene unit for $9 billion. Net debt most recently was $9.7 billion, 4.3x more than LTM EBITDA according to CFO John Reece. Of course there is the matter of plummeting EBITDA... Doubt leverage will be there for long time.

Ladenburg analyst Dick Bove (who understandably underestimated the stupidity of the Treasury and on Sept. 12 stated his belief that "Banc of America will win the auction for Lehman Brothers.") has just whacked his target price for Citi from $14 to $6, and is projecting a 2009 loss of ($1.45), a whole buck lower than consensus estimates.