Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF) shares slumped on Tuesday after the title insurer said it plans to make a public offering of 13.30 million shares of its common stock.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based company intends to use proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including the possibility of repaying debt under its $1.1 billion syndicated credit contract.

Fidelity's debt burden had increased when it bought three units of bankrupt rival LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. last December. The company has granted underwriters the option to buy up to 2 million additional shares.

As the offering would further dilute the troubled insurer's earnings, shareholders sent the stock down nearly 11% to $20.15 at noon on the New York Stock Exchange. Fidelity National shares had touched an intraday low of $19.68 earlier in the session.

Alex’s Notes: Does anyone besides me find it interesting that the names of the firms involved in this stuff are also heavily involved in the gold trade? Just thought I would point that out, in case someone missed it.

Be careful how and with whom you store your wealth.

March 26, 2009, 6:17 pm

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Thursday afternoon that he was widening his investigation of the American International Group to examine whether its trading counterparties improperly received billions of dollars in government money from the troubled insurer.

Those counterparties include Goldman Sachs, which received $12.9 billion, as well as Société Générale

By John Irish and Luke Pachymuthu

DUBAI, March 2 (Reuters) - Major emerging economies are seeking to raise their central banks’ gold reserve holdings as fears of a sharp depreciation in the U.S. dollar mount, senior industry officials said on Monday.

Investors have been piling into gold as a safe haven as the the world’s worst financial crisis since the 1930s depression sent global stock markets crashing.

“In this recession it is India and China which are going to grow at a slow rate, but they are growing,” said Aram Shishmanian, chief executive officer of the World Gold Council.

“And they will naturally be looking to gold as part of their reserve asset management strategy, and I see them buying.”

China, the biggest foreign holder of dollar denominated treasury securities with some $681.9 billion

Holy cow batman.

A string of cascading failures in US Financial institutions appears to be having a chilling effect on the leaders of the worlds largest developing nation.

This week, casualties in the form of Merril Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and now AIG are lighting off alarms across the globe, with fears that the US Financial Maelstrom could lead to global problems far greater than what is happening now.

The most recent alarm, caused by the cascading failures of some of the worlds oldest financial titans, is rung with a final clarion call of AIG, a $1,000 Billion dollar insurer of the US Commodities markets is facing bankruptcy, to be bailed out by the Fed.

From the Telegraph.co.uk:

Federal Reserve bails out AIG with $85bn loan

By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent Last Updated: 1:38am BST 17/09/2008

The future of American International Group appears to have been guaranteed after high-level talks resulted