State Street

• Must read: Researching corruption at the Treasury: The PPT 101 (Market Skeptics)
• NRG suit against Exelon bid dismissed (WSJ)
• State Street will have something to say about this: Fed in discussions on changing Repo transactions (Bloomberg)
• Someone is buying the solar hype: GCL-Poly to buy Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon (Bloomberg)

The brand spanking new team (and legacy boy Craig Schmidt) that Merrill recently acquired from some other bank (I wrote about this, but frankly don't remember where these clowns came from nor do I care), just went to town all over the REIT bathroom and marked their territory effusively. ML in fact distributed a 45 page reinitiation report, which I have no intention of ever reading. The summary ratings and price targets are below.

The brand spanking new team (and legacy boy Craig Schmidt) that Merrill recently acquired from some other bank (I wrote about this, but frankly don't remember where these clowns came from nor do I care), just went to town all over the REIT bathroom and marked their territory effusively. ML in fact distributed a 45 page reinitiation report, which I have no intention of ever reading. The summary ratings and price targets are below.

Hi-fi quants are like pigs in a trough today, driving the market on horrible new home sales numbers just as State Street is back to its usual antics and (or as a result of which) Fidelity disclosing no IWM borrow available. In the meantime, Moody's has released its Credit Card Index update: charge off rates for May have now surpassed 10%. From the report:

• State Street, which is underweight bonds, sees Treasuries at 4.5% in 6-12 months (Forbes) [State Street is also underweight shorting]

• Must read: Researching corruption at the Treasury: The PPT 101 (Market Skeptics)
• NRG suit against Exelon bid dismissed (WSJ)
• State Street will have something to say about this: Fed in discussions on changing Repo transactions (Bloomberg)
  

A number you won't hear much about on CNBC: Capital One's official annualized U.S. credit card net charge-off rate hit 9.41% for May, however as footnote (1) advises, the real charge-off rate was actually 9.91%, a record for the company.

Zero Hedge has always been fascinated by the behemoths of securities lending (or not so much lately) State Street and Bank Of New York: these firms, which allegedly had just marginal toxic exposure, were in the front lines for the TARP bailout and have traditionally been handled with velvet gloves by the administration. In fact, many would say the custodian firms are in a league of importance much higher than even Goldman or JP Morgan as with their repo activity, security lending and cash collateral reinvestment, they are the de facto center of the shadow banking system.

Today several financial companies were given permission to repay their TARP crutches. The market yawned. As expected, nowhere in Geithner's prepared statement was there even a brief mention of that "other" crutch, the TLGP subsidies that banks have used over the past 6 months.

In a flagrant example of chasing the marginal buyer as others offload their shares, Morgan Stanley just came out with a research piece which upgrades the price targets of virtually all banks by 33% on average (better known as stratospheric escape velocity).

• FASB rule will force banks to move assets onto books, more pain down the road (Bloomberg)
• Local banks face big losses due to commercial real estate (WSJ hat tip IMA5U)
• In advising U.S., BlackRock thrives in uncertain times (NYT and

The product of the great spin is out! Everything flying after hours. State Street and BONY now pulling the borrow in State Street and BONY, kinda poetic. And, of course, all leaks were right on the money. Over under on the leakers actually getting prosecuted?

Nothing like telegraphing to the world that all is rosy by riding the US CDS short squeeze wave. Btw, when is congress convening to raise the cap on total US on-balance sheet debt?

Nothing like telegraphing to the world that all is rosy by riding the US CDS short squeeze wave. Btw, when is congress convening to raise the cap on total US on-balance sheet debt?