Pre -open trading:
Lehman down 33 percent
Merrill down 15 percent
Morgan Stanley down 12 percent
UBS down 11 percent
Wachovia and Citi down about 10 percent
Elsewhere:
H&R Block up 5 percent as Wilbur Ross has agreed to acquire Option One's Servicing Business for $1.1 Billion from H&R Block. He is not buying the mortgages, merely the right to service them.
Another HMO lowers its outlook. Coventry lowered its 2008 forecast, citing the impact of flu on costs.
Welcome, journalists! Now get out. Another fallout from the Bear Stearns debacle: financial analyst Richard Bove at Punk Ziegel, who has been much in demand for his commentary in the past few weeks, put out a press release over the weekend saying he would not be doing any more interviews and would not make research available to the media. He said he had been deluged with so many media calls he could not talk to his clients, and that "complaints from one television network were excessive." (Didn't say who).
I sent him an email (I've talked to Richard for years), but have not received any reply. Maybe he'll put out a press release announcing he had been deluged with inquiries asking to further explain why he had cut off the media, and that as a result he will announce that he is no longer putting out press releases. We are in a hall of mirrors here.
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