Monday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

  • March 17, 2008
  • Ashton Dorkins

Good Morning!

JP Morgan Chase Buys Bear Stearns for $236M… Stocks Plunge Worldwide on Bear Collapse… Fed Cuts Discount Rate after Emergency Meeting… CME Agrees to Acquire Nymex for $9.3B… International Paper Buys Rival… Corporate Bond Risk Soars.

Asian stocks down… European stocks down… Dollar plunges… Bonds Rise… And the futures are sharply lower.

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

J.P. Morgan Buys Bear in Fire Sale – Wall Street Journal

J.P. Morgan agreed to buy Bear Stearns for $2 a share in a stock-swap transaction. The deal values Bear Stearns at just $236 million. At the end of Friday, Bear’s stock-market value was about $3.54 billion.

Fed Cuts Discount Rate, Lends More to Avert Meltdown – Bloomberg

The Federal Reserve, struggling to prevent a meltdown in financial markets, cut the rate on direct loans to banks and became lender of last resort to the biggest dealers in U.S. government bonds.

CME Signs Deal for Nymex – Wall Street Journal

CME Group signed an agreement to acquire Nymex Holdings, a $9.3 billion deal that underscores the importance of technology to exchanges.

White House Offers Plan to Ward Off Credit Crises – NY Times

The Bush administration responded to the credit crisis on Thursday, outlining a plan that officials emphasized is meant more to prevent future crises than to address the current one.

Japan’s Strong Yen Problem – Time

On Thursday the yen slipped to 99.7, the lowest it has been since November 1995. Following suit on Friday, Tokyo stocks plummeted to their lowest levels since August 2005. Just a few months ago, the rate was 113 to the dollar.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

  • The Wall Street Journal reported Bear Stearns
    (
    BSC |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     is “facing increasingly tough trading conditions.” BSC was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, falling nearly 8%.

  • Bear Stearns
    (
    BSC |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     plunged more than 47% after needing to be bailed out by JPMorgan Chase
    (
    JPM |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)    , with a little help from the Fed. BSC was experiencing such difficulty that it couldn’t wait to borrow from the Fed on March 27, instead having to turn to JPMorgan Chase, who borrowed from the Fed.

  • AnnTaylor Stores
    (
    ANN |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     lost more than 8% after the company missed earnings estimates by $0.01 and lowered guidance.

  • Boeing
    (
    BA |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     was the only stock in the Dow to close higher, rising 2.8%.

  • Mylan
    (
    MYL |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, after Citigroup raised its recommendation from “hold” to “buy”.

  • Before the market open on Monday, Conseco
    (
    CNO |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     is due to report earnings, with analysts looking for $0.19 per share.

  • Do you think Amazon.com
    (
    AMZN |
    Quote |
    Chart |
    News |
    PowerRating)     will close up or down on Tuesday? Play TradingMarkets Up or Down Daily Stock Contest for the chance to win $1000 every month by predicting the direction of a stock.

For a list of today’s highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 Top PowerRatings Stocks for Today

Company
 Symbol PowerRatings
Wellpoint WLP 8
Yahoo! YHOO 8
UAL Corp. UAUA 8
National Interstate NATL 8
T3 Energy Services TTES 8

View More Stocks

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Bear Stearns and the Fed Have Questions to Answer – TradingMarkets

In the past week, the CEO of Bear Stearns, and the chairman of the SEC, amazingly told reporters that Bear Stearns’ liquidity was just fine. And, did the Fed know about BSC before injecting $200B into the system?

The Spit and the Spitzer – PowerRatings

Who knew that the “Two Minutes Hate” would be just another round of Schadenfreude at the spontaneous combustion that was former New York City attorney general and (until Monday morning) New York governor Eliot Spitzer this week?

Too Hot to Handle? – TradingMarkets

When a market sells off after a strong move higher, what kinds of stocks are traders selling?

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