On the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, stock markets begin the trading day depressed — but not by fear of more violence.
Uncertainty over guidance from Lehman Brothers casts a pall over the entire banking sector, including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs .
Analysts at several firms, including JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Sanford Bernstein, cut price targets and widen loss projections for Lehman. But Sanford breaks from the pack in predicting that Lehman will not suffer as badly as Bear Stearns did.
On the other hand, Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies, isn't even remotely reassured by events.
"We thought getting news out of Lehman was going to clear the dark cloud but it really doesn't. It just leaves us with a company that's limping along, that may or may not make it," Hogan tells Reuters.
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