The markets were able to hold onto gains during a turbulent day, as the Dow closed at 8740.87. The NASDAQ was up 0.44% closing at 1836.80, with the S&P 500 up 0.20% closing at 944.74. The 10-year saw prices fall once again, closing with a yield of 3.609%. Crude was down settling at $68.55, while August gold headed in the opposite direction settling at $984.40 as the dollar continues to fall.

Ford [F: 6.41, +0.28 (+4.57%)] reported that sales fell 24% during May while GM [GM: 0.00, 0.00 (0.00%)], Toyota [TM: 80.99, -0.73 (-0.89%)], and Chrysler reported that sales fell 29%, 41%, and 47% decline respectively. Ford, which is the only major US car company not in bankruptcy, reported that it’s Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands captured the most market share since 2006. Ford has been able

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Finally…we’re back in London. We left at the beginning of April…went to San Diego and Los Angeles…then to Buenos Aires and Salta…then to Paris for a few days.. and now we’re back. London is cold and rainy…just like we left it. Not exactly home…but it will do. But what’s this? The City seems to be winding down. All those hot shots in the financial sector aren’t so hot any more.

In the space of just ten years, the percentage of GDP generated by the financial sector almost doubled – from 5.5% in 1996 to 10.8% a decade later. But now the whole sector is shrinking…along with bonuses…payrolls…and expense accounts.

And since Britain counted so heavily on the financial high fliers and their money…the whole country seems to have gone into a funk.

Tax revenues are collapsing. Deficits are soaring. The U.K.’s national budget deficit is already at 12%…about even with the United

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Deal goes through midmorning Thursday ...

 

Early in the day on Thursday, Barclays PLC announced it had sold its iShares exchange-traded fund unit to CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Luxembourg, for $4.4 billion.

It was only a few weeks ago that rumors that the unit was for sale began to emerge. Once those were confirmed, CVC was eventually identified as the preferred buyer. Barclays has repeatedly refused to accept funds from the British government as part of a rescue program for financial institutions, presumably because it wanted to avoid being even partially nationalized. However, the bank still needed to raise cash, and the sale of iShares should help with that.

A Barclays press release contains the key elements of the deal. The release states that Barclays will realize "an expected net gain on sale of US$2.2 billion." Barclays is financing the bulk of the deal,

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What do iShares, Formula One, Tower Records and the Belgian Post Office have in common? Sometime next week, they'll probably all be owned by the same private equity firm.

That's right, it's (almost) official: Barclays issued a statement this morning confirming reports in the FT and elsewhere that its iShares unit was likely being sold to CVC Capital Partners. The Barclays statement read:

 

Barclays notes recent press comment regarding a possible sale of iShares. As announced on 16 March, Barclays has held discussions with a number of potentially interested parties.

We now have a preferred bidder, CVC Capital Partners. If these negotiations reach a satisfactory conclusion, it would lead to a sale of Barclays iShares business without the attributable securities lending business. Earlier speculation assumed the sale of both iShares and securities lending.

A further announcement will be made in due course.

 

So much for Jim Wiandt's recent

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Gold was under pressure right from the open in Sydney on Wednesday morning. This pressure accelerated once London was open for business. The bottom was in about fifteen minutes after Comex floor trading began in New York. A rally began that was highlighted by a big spike in the price around the time of the London p.m. fix. Was it that…or Geithner’s lips moving? The top price of the day arrived shortly after Comex trading ended and electronic trading commenced. All in all, a very interesting 24 hours.

The usual N.Y. commentator had this to say about yesterday’s activities…”Wednesday’s dramatic Comex session was notable for huge volume–particularly before the Geithner “Open Mouth/Insert Foot” incident. By 10 a.m., 117,039 lots were estimated to have traded, with gold being successfully contained. A spike after the Geithner report carried April gold to up $18.20 on the day…although this was partially eroded on very heavy

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While many people are comforted by the fact that no major terrorist incidents have occurred in the last few years, a British study finds that a biological or nuclear attack is more realistic than some realize. The report that was released earlier this week compiles the findings of a six-year counter-terrorism effort by British officials that brings to light the likelihood of an attack involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Since 2001, British law enforcement has managed to extinguish more than a dozen terrorist attacks. In response to the number of attacks in recent years, the British have built facilities for mass decontaminations and have also trained and equipped more than 7,000 police officers on how to deal with WMD incidents.

The 176-page report titled “Pursue, Protect, Prevent, Prepare: The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering International Terrorism” details the updated British strategy for

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It’s a recession but Byron King tells us that it is not too late for gold investing.  He has been encouraging gold bugs for over ten years now. Here he explains why owning gold and silver is the safest way to weather out this economic storm.

This from Byron:

Asset classes go up and down. Precious metals are, of course, another asset class. They move with the economic tides. In the past 30 years, gold has rocketed up and plummeted down.

At several points in the past 30 years, things were so bad that gold sellers were like the proverbial Maytag repairman. They led lives of quiet desperation about which no one cared. Because like the late Rodney Dangerfield, gold got no respect.

Heck, between 1999-2002, the British government sold a large amount of its national gold, nearly 395 tonnes (metric tons), for about $275 per ounce. The Bank of England used the

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Overall, we continue to maintain a negative outlook on both U.S. and non-U.S. Banks in the near-to-medium term.

The new Financial Stability plan announced by the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner fell short on the details and we think that the benefits, if any, will take a long time to come by. While the earlier programs launched by the government have helped alleviate the capital and funding concerns to a great extent, the efforts have not succeeded in restoring the lending activity at banks.

It remains to be seen whether these steps and others like them in other countries will be sufficient to restore confidence in the financial system and increase lending.

In the meantime, lower lending activity will continue to hurt the margins though the low interest rate environment should be beneficial to the banks with a liability sensitive balance sheet.

It still remains a bit

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Thursday February 26, 2009 Navivest

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today announced that for fiscal year 2008, it lost 24.1 billion British pounds, the largest corporate loss ever in UK history. The losses reflect a 16.2 billion British pound write-down on acquisitions it made, including its $102 billion takeover of Dutch banking group ABN Amro in 2007 and a 7.9 billion British pounds operating loss.

The bank also announced that it will be putting 325 billion British pounds of its assets into a British government backed insurance plan.

Under the insurance plan through which the British government is looking at covering about 500 billion pounds in toxic assets from British banks, RBS will be responsible for the first 19.5 billion pounds and the government will be responsible for 90% of any losses beyond that, with RBS bearing responsibility for the rest.

The news is being welcomed on both sides of the Atlantic, with

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We highlight the following stocks: Barclays PLC (BCS), HSBC Holdings plc (HBC), Lloyds Banking Group plc (LYG) and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS).The Bank of England (BOE) cut interest rates 50 basis points on Thursday to 1.0%, the lowest level in its 315-year history, and down 400 basis points from the 5.0% level of October 2008. The cut matched expectations, with another rate cut of the same magnitude a possibility for March.This contrasts with the stance adopted by the European Central Bank (ECB), which held the line at its recent meeting, maintaining interest rates at 2.0%. The United States Federal Reserve Bank‘s key interest rate is currently 0.0-0.25%.The BOE's rate cut did not have any impact on share prices and is not likely, in and of itself, to have a significant impact on economic activity. Industrial ...