Short-sellers scrambling for cover sent shares of Volkswagen AG (OTC ADR: VLKAY) rocketing up more than $1,000 each Tuesday, to briefly give the German automaker the most valuable market capitalization in the world.

Volkswagen’s Frankfurt-traded shares soared as high as $1,258 (1,005 euros) before closing at $1,186 (918 euros) yesterday.

On Monday, Porsche SE (PINK: POAHF) announced it had acquired options on 31.5% of Volkswagen’s stock, in addition to the 42.6% direct stake it already controlled. With the German state of Lower Saxony controlling another 20.2% of Volkswagen stock, that left a very small amount of shares available for short-sellers who had bet on a decline in Volkswagen’s share price - given the poor outlook for the global auto industry - to cover their “short” positions.

“We’re getting a sense of the Sturm und Drang in the markets now,” Michael Holland, the manager of Holland & Co., an investment management firm,

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Short-sellers scrambling for cover sent shares of Volkswagen AG (OTC ADR: VLKAY) rocketing up more than $1,000 each yesterday (Tuesday), to briefly give the German automaker the most valuable market capitalization in the world. Volkswagen’s Frankfurt-traded shares soared as high as $1,258 (1,005 euros) before closing at $1,186 (918 euros) yesterday. On Monday, Porsche SE (PINK: POAHF) announced it had acquired options on 31.5% of Volkswagen’s stock, in addition to the 42.6% direct stake it already controlled. With the German state of Lower Saxony controlling another 20.2% of Volkswagen stock, that left a very small amount of shares available for short-sellers who had bet on a decline in Volkswagen’s share price - given the poor outlook for the global auto industry - to cover their "short" positions. "We’re getting a sense of the Sturm und Drang in the markets ...

As always it's never the news, but the reaction to the news which is what matters. Goldman Sachs (GS) had "ok" earnings - poor for them, but great compared to anything their peers have put out - but the stock is down double digits in premarket. To make money at all in this environment is a victory but the market is in fear mode - not logic mode. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS - News) said third-quarter earnings plunged 70 percent as one of the market's worst slumps ever sapped revenue in almost every business while fueling investment and credit losses. The largest U.S. investment bank reported net income of $845 million, or $1.81 a share, for the quarter ended August 29, down from $2.85 billion, or $6.13 a share, a year earlier. Net revenue fell by half ...

By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor U.S. private-equity firm Lone Star Funds announced yesterday (Thursday) that it would buy a majority stake in Germany’s IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG for one-fifth of the original asking price. Lone Star will pay $223 million (150 million euros) for a 90.8% stake in IKB, considerably lower than the asking price by state-controlled bank KfW Bankengruppe. However, KfW was anxious to close the deal and get IKB’s distressed assets off of its balance sheet. “This will finally bring clarity and calm,” Green party lawmaker and KfW administrative board member Christine Scheel said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. “It was the right decision to sell the bank as quickly as possible.” IKB has been savaged by the subprime mortgage crisis. The German bank has had to take $15.1 billion in writedowns since the credit ...

Web Video hunt: On Monday, what did Holland & Co. chairman Mike Holland blame for high oil prices?

He, like I, blames them on supply and demand.