Archive for April, 2010
Get Peer to Peer Lending Investment Tips from Lending Club Webcasts
If you are interested in investing some of your money in a peer to peer lending company, such as Lending Club or Prosper.com, you really shouldn’t go in without spending a significant amount of time learning about what makes for a loan listing that you should select. When becoming a peer to peer lender, You [...]
Prosper.com “Series D” Funding Devalued Shares by 93%
Prosper.com, a company which offers a peer to peer lending marketplace, recently completed its “Series D” funding round which provided the company with $14.7 million in new capital, however the deal was on much less favorable terms for Prosper than its A, B and C rounds were. Prosper Marketplace received its last round of funding [...]
2010 U.S. Bank Failures Now at 57; Cost to FDIC tops $970 Million
U.S. regulators closed seven Illinois banks on Friday, bringing to 57 the number of U.S. banks that have failed this year, after 140 failures in 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the total cost to its deposit insurance fund from Friday’s failures topped $970 million. State banking regulators closed Chicago’s Broadway Bank, owned by [...]
Opinion: Goldman Sachs (GS) is Only the Tip of “Quant” Iceberg
I recently read The Quants, a book by Wall St. Journal reporter Scott Patterson. The book talks about the rise, and perhaps fall, of a group of mathematicians and computer scientists turned investment bankers and hedge fund managers. Their specialty was using quantitative statistical analysis and game theory to create sophisticated derivative investments, which relied [...]
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) To Close 120 Locations To Eliminate Overlapping
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will likely close 120 U.S. brokerage offices in order to remove overlapping that exists with Smith Barney locations, said President and COO Charles D. Johnston, according to a Bloomberg report. Johnston made the announcement while speaking at a conference in New York, stating that U.S. locations will likely be cut down [...]
J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) “Far and Away the Best Bidder” for WaMu
According to regulators, J.P. Morgan (JPM) may not have received the sweetheart deal it was reported to have received after submitting its winning bid for Washington Mutual. Pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Wall St. Journal received a previously unreleased document from federal regulators. The details of the transaction appear to weaken [...]
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Merges Canadian Lending Units, Forms Wells Fargo Capital Finance
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) announced Friday that it has formed a new lending unit, Wells Fargo Capital Finance. The unit is a combination of the bank’s Wachovia Capital Finance Corporation (Canada), Wells Fargo Business Credit Canada ULC and Wells Fargo Foothill Canada ULC. The bank said the new unit will provide a wide range of [...]
Warren Buffett Has No Problem with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK) Stake in Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
According to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK) director, Thomas Murphy, cited by Bloomberg News, Warren Buffett has little concern over the large stake Berkshire holds in the giant financial firm, regardless of the current fraud charges against them. Murphy stated, “He’s not concerned with the investment at all. He has to see what’s going to happen on [...]
Citigroup (NYSE:C) Says Greece Becoming a European Union Contagion
Citigroup’s (NYSE:C) Mark Schofield, global head of interest-rate strategy in London, said concerning the Greece sovereign debt debacle that “We’re seeing contagion.” He is referring Portugal, Spain and Italy, and I would add Ireland is right up there too, although they and Italy probably aren’t the immediate concern, if we can trust numbers being thrown [...]
Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) Hires Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to Advise on PET Business
After five years of working on generating a profit in their polyethylene terephthalate (PET) business, Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) seems to have decided to abandon the sector, hiring Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to advise them on which direction to go next with it. In a Friday morning conference call, CEO Jim Rogers told analysts “We have [...]
American Express (NYSE: AXP) Q1 Earnings More Than Double On Strong Revenue, Shrinking Credit Costs
American Express (NYSE: AXP) announced Thursday that first quarter earnings more than doubled as revenue and volumes showed robust growth. The credit card company also took a much smaller provision for loan losses at net charge-offs fell 7.2 percent from a year ago. The company said it earned $873 million or 73 cents a share [...]
Dick Bove Raises Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) To Neutral, Bumps Price Target
Bank analyst Dick Bove raised his rating on Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) from sell to neutral on Thursday. The move comes just a day after the bank reported first quarter earnings that were lower than a year ago. Bove of Rochdale Securities raised his price target for Wells Fargo from $25 to $29. The analyst [...]
Dividends, Outstanding Shares Among Shareholder Concerns Despite Strong Quarter at Citigroup (NYSE: C)
One year after conducting an annual meeting that could charitably be described as “testy”, Citigroup (C) executives were treated to applause and even a few bouquets from shareholders. Citi’s stock has risen 60% in recent months. A far cry from the 95% plunge it had taken at the start of 2009. “The tide is turning,” [...]
Media Reports that German Bank BayernLB (BAYB.UL) Cut Ties with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Not True
Sloppy research and reporting from media outlets that German bank BayernLB (BAYB.UL) had cut all ties with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) are untrue, as all the story really entailed the cancellation of only one consultancy agreement. Communicating with MarketWatch, a spokesman for BayernLB said this, “Goldman Sachs was working for BayernLB in a special consultancy sense [...]
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Going Global with Wealth Management Unit
Head of the wealth management unit at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Sallie Krawcheck, said the focus of the division will be to grow its business beyond the U.S. market, as that’s where the majority of opportunity will be for years. Talking to a private client conference, Krawcheck noted that of every dollar of new growth [...]
worst video player ever- after over2:00 there's still no video appearing 