Comments on: Lehman Down 11%, Closes Below $20 As Rumors Intensify

By: Skeptical

Skeptical — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Seems strange that the rating agencies have not downgraded Lb again – either short-term or long-term obligations or debt. Aren’t they supposed to be cleaning up their own act? Who is pulling their strings. It will be sickening to hear that it was Henry Paulson or Bernanke telling them to hold their fire a la Robert Rubin at Citigroup a few years ago.

By: Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:26:00 +0000

The Barclays idea made no sense to me, but I suppose most Americans know no US bank is a credible buyer, so anyone big and foreign (save maybe UBS) sounds more plausible. Some of the big Japanese banks could pull it off, but I sincerely doubt they have the appetite. If any one were to step forward, it would be the result of serious behind the scenes arm-twisting.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:53:00 +0000

A Citi analyst last week estimated that Barclays needs to raise an additional &pound 9B to sop up writedowns and strengthen its cap ratios. Still, this rumor is better than the one that says, `uh, and there are no buyers’.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:01:00 +0000

Hopefully someone is awake at the old Bank of England and not asleep at the switch as the U.S. regulators seem to be… . Or maybe Gordon Brown sees this as a valuable favor to an important ally.

This rumor has been floating out there since February…at least no one has come out and pledged that the deal will go through a la BofA and C’wide.

What would they be buying, anyway? Neuberger, I guess.

By: burrite

burrite — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:58:00 +0000

Clearly the Barclay’s rumor (which started making the rounds just after mid-day) accelerated the sell-off today, but a number of people have told me they’d just as soon not be long any LEH into the release of the company’s 10-Q, which is likely to come next week.

By: "Cassandra"

"Cassandra" — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:33:00 +0000

(warning: I am not an apologist for LEH)

fundamental story aside, one should always look very carefully and suspiciously upon end-of-month, and especially calendar end-of-quarter marks - particularly those of securities that have significantly outperformed or underperformed during the interval - all the more-so for the underperformers since the rollback of zero-plus-tick rule. Oh, how I would love to see the time&sales data (with ultimate-customer look-throughs) on the last couple of days of the month and compare that to position shifts.

yeah, LEH may be toast, or not, who knows. I don't have a position or an opinion, but no one should be surprised if those with meaningful short positions and/or large fund complexes with below below benchmark-weight positions are scoring the maximum extra bragging points (or accrued incentive fees), or merely hoping to keep the ship afloat for yet one quarter more.

One day, authorities may have the technology, along with the will and the mandate, to aggregate an investors' positions across public and private markets, and instruments to see (or infer) who's being naughty and who's playin' nice.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:24:00 +0000

Barclays? It ought to be a “bailee” not a “bailer.”