Following the federal government's directive of plugging capital holes at large banks, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) raised $15 billion in stock and bond sales on Friday.

In the results of its stress tests revealed late on Thursday, the Federal Reserve concluded that 10 of the largest financial institutions in the country would have to raise $74.6 billion to ensure solid capital cushioning against future losses. While some like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) managed to pass muster, Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley were among the prominent ones found to be in urgent need of capital.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also showed confidence in the ability of banks to tap capital from private sources and without further support from the government. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley demonstrated today

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If you are looking for very cheap stocks, you may want to look for stocks that are selling below cash per share. What this means is if you take all the cash a company has and divide it by the number of shares, you get the cash per share. There are actually over 60 stocks out there, discovered by WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which are trading below that cash amount. The following are a list of 11 stocks, all with market caps over $400 million, which are trading way below cash per share, therefore, with a Price to Cash per Share [PCS] ratio of way below 1. Keep in mind that many of these are foreign companies, many have high debt, and many are in struggling industries. Financials are based on several sources, but should be investigated before investing in any of these stocks. Mitsubishi UFJ ( MTU ...

While investors remain extremely concerned about the volatility of the U.S. stock market, the weakness of the American economy and the uncertainty of the global financial markets, last week brought “slight” relief from the excessive panic of the eight-trading-session losing streak.

Bear in mind that each new economic report, earnings statement, news report or trading session represents a new opportunity for fear and uncertainty to reemerge.

Fortunately, next week’s economic calendar remains quite light, although retailers may just weigh in with “doom-and-gloom” holiday predictions.  Earnings season may be weak as well (with even more pessimistic outlooks), so investors should not overreact even if Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Halliburton Inc. (HAL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and others fail to meet expectations.  Volatility should continue and the days of triple-digit index moves (often up and down in the same day) may be here for a while.

So try not to get so overwhelmed with the

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Morgan Stanley (MS) announced yesterday (Monday) that it closed its long-awaited deal with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (ADR: MTU), giving Japan’s largest financial group a 21% stake in the beleaguered U.S. investment bank. Meanwhile, Sovereign Bancorp Inc. (SOV) confirmed last night that it has agreed to be bought out by Spain’s Banco Santander SA (ADR: STD) with regards to a possible buyout. Mitsubishi UFJ first announced its intention to acquire a stake in Morgan Stanley on Sept. 22, but shares of the investment bank fell 60% last week as credit market turmoil and investor panic gripped the markets, putting the deal in jeopardy. The deal was renegotiated yesterday after the U.S. government signaled over the weekend that it was prepared to protect Mitsubishi’s investment, the The Wall Street Journal reported. In September, MUFG agreed to buy $6 billion in ...

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In what is being termed a strategic alliance by Morgan Stanley (MS), Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU) on Monday 09/22/08, announced that it will purchase a 10-20% stake in Morgan Stanley (MS). Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU) will make the investment after completion of its due diligence and upon the closing, will elect a representative to sit on the Morgan Stanley board.

According  to Morgan Stanley, the investment “in addition to further strengthening the Firm’s capital position, this alliance would benefit Morgan Stanley and MUFG by providing each with a valuable strategic partner as it seeks to enhance its global footprint and capture financial services opportunities around the world.  Morgan Stanley was granted approval yesterday by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors to become a Federal Bank Holding Company.”

Morgan Stanley’s (MS) stock which closed on Friday 09/19/08 at $27.21, opened at $30.76 on Monday, reached a high of $31.65, but ended up closing at $27.09,

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Below are some additional thoughts on the latest MUFG-UB offer (these comments were originally posted in response to an article published by Reuters; edited for style/formatting). UB’s (UB: 73.25 +11.85%) Special Committee is very opportunistic and knows what it is doing. It has effectively taken its minority stake hostage vis a vis its board representation and a long-standing one at that for the Chief of the Committee. At the end of the day, there is absolutely no “reputation risk” as MUFG (MTU: 7.54 +2.86%) fears. Why? Nobody on Wall Street cares! So, is MUFG overpaying? Of course it is. Is it a good deal — yes, great for UBOC in this market. Will MUFG pay up even further as some Tokyo analysts suggest? Probably not. If so, it is even more concerning why there is such urgency on the part of MUFG. Meantime MUFG shareholders ...

By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s (ADR: MTU) $3 billion bid to obtain California’s UnionBanCal Corp. (UB) suffered a blow yesterday (Thursday) when a shareholder advisory committee determined the offer price was too low. “The proposed price does not reflect the strength of UnionBanCal’s strong capital position, the superior credit quality of its assets, and its potential for profitable asset and core deposit growth in the current market environment,” Richard Farman, chairman of the special committee said, The Financial Times reported. Soon after the $3 billion offer was announced, investors bid the share price higher. Shares closed at $65.46, yesterday, over $2 more than Mitsubishi’s offer price. The $63-a-share offer, “is not in the best interest of UnionBanCal’s minority stockholders,” the bank said in a statement. UnionBanCal’s majority stakeholder is, of course, Mitsubishi itself. The Japanese ...