patrick.net

>> Are we gonna see 11K for DOW?

I am rooting for it. Very happy to see DOW and dollar decline so far ...

Countrywide Stock Plummets
Countrywide Shares Tumble, Lender Denies Bankruptcy Rumors

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, plunged Tuesday after the company denied rumors that it was planning to file for bankruptcy protection.

The stock fell $2.13, or more than 28 percent, to $5.51 in afternoon trading after sinking to a 52-week low of $5.05.

In a prepared statement earlier in the day, the company said there was "no substance to the rumor that Countrywide is planning to file for bankruptcy, and we are not aware of any basis for the rumor that any of the major rating agencies are contemplating negative action relative to the company."

RE: CFC, funny thing is, they are still advertising great rates on CD's to Countrywide Bank, easily 100bp, up to 200bp better than most competitors. D'ya think they're in dire need of cash???

Airlines... any day of the week.

Retailers? Occasionally.

Mfrs? It's not unheard of,

But a Mortgage Lender?! C'mon people, when was the last a ML had to declare BK? Anyone?

Maybe Buffet will buy CFC now !

I sold my CFC put long time ago, but I am still happy - the sooner they disappear from this planet the better.

“re-created”
Is that anything like… forged?

LOL ! There is no end to the surprises. Isn't there a point when people realize not to do stupid things anymore ? I mean enough already. CFC deserves the financial version of the Darwin award.

I guess BAC got a "sweet deal" when they invested in CFC at 18$ thinking there is no way to "loose" !

(HARM : Check out http://tinyurl.com/2n342y Nice surprise, if you haven't seen it yet)

A very good confirmation of bear market today. I hope everyone's puts and shorts worked out beautifully so far. Let's ride the market down and make our money (that is not tied up in RE) work hard.

Randy, welcome back. Good to know that you have decided to hold out till 2010. You mentioned considering renting two adjacent condo units before, is that what you plan to do? Are you up in Marin or have you relocated down to Peninsula?

OO :

This one is for you.

http://tinyurl.com/2agbq2

Stuck,

thanks. That's why I have always said one has to short individual stocks that are already weak in a weak sector, and stay away from shorting indices.

PPT has limited resources, they cannot and will not buy up BBBY, CC, or companies in industries without the closest ties to White House. Don't short Goldman, don't short BOA, but there are plenty of other choices that you can short to your heart's content and never worry about PPT ruining your day. You think PPT will care to save WSM? I don't care if the indices are heading up, I just care that the individual stocks that I short are hitting new low.

Do your homework. There are lots of loser companies in loser industries waiting to hit new low as the American housing ATM runs dry. Pay particular attention to retailers without much overseas presence.

Then the travel companies. Will PPT care if CCL hits new low? Will PPT care if CALC goes bankrupt?

The only problem of shorting these losers is the availability of share for borrowing. That is more of a worry than PPT.

China just launched its first ever gold futures market today in Shanghai.

minimum contract size: 1000g
max fluctuations allowed: 5% +/- of the previous day closing
min margin deposit 7%
no delivery

"financial version of the Darwin award"

Oh definitely. When I say ML's going belly-up being a rare occurrence (I mean other than the 212 already noted on Implode-a-meter!)

Let's see, you have NO inventory, almost all of your staff is 1099 "commission only" and you shuffle your paper to a GSE before the close of business that day? To me, that's like a bookie having to declare BK?!

OO, good call on today being a bear market confirmation. I have it on word from an astute source that a bull-bear indicator crossed paths today (stochastic and mac-something???). The last time this happened was in 2003 when it signaled a bull market, previous to that was in 2000 that signaled a bear market. Today's crossing signals we are entering a bear market. I was told that if I'm going to trade, to do so only on the short side.

So I was at home depot and lowes a few times in the last week. Its a total graveyard. There is only 1 line open and about as many customers as employees. And they are mostly VERY helpful. I was like - is this the same store? In 01-05 the place was a madhouse night or day rain or shine.

Now i get home to see CFC at 5 and Etrade at 2! I have accounts at Etrade and have a cd and 401k there. Am I screwed? will they 'steal' my money in event of BK? im 50k over fdic limit with them... I also have a cd w/cfc (under fdic limit) so i guess im safe there....

really instead of having CDs with these guys i should have shorted them with those funds-too late now....

One thing about bear markets to keep in mind. There are often violent rallies. For many many reasons. Be willing to cover your shorts.

* NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

Lowes is always more pleasant than Home Depot but I've noticed the same thing. I have to say, I got a hell of a deal on a refrigerator at Lowes. Then I did 6 months same as cash to get an extra 10% off. Free delivery too. I ended up with a nice Whirlpool 21CF with icemaker in the 500s.

I almost feel dirty admitting this but JC Penny is all of a sudden a great place to shop for men's stuff. Man, you get them on the right day and it is a discount on top of a discount. These are real savings not that 70% off bullshit with the preprinted tag. I don't know how they do it but then you look and see that they actually have a line at the register vs Sears, Nordstrom, or Macys where you just see a bored person trying to look busy with crickets chirping in the background.

I have accounts at Etrade and have a cd and 401k there. Am I screwed? will they ’steal’ my money in event of BK? im 50k over fdic limit with them

Why did you go over FDIC limit at all ? Not trying to put you down, but there are enough banks to spread out your cash - ING, Citi Esavings, HSBC, EmmigrantDirect and so many banks give decent rates on cash.

If I were you, I would definitely bring all my accounts below FDIC limit.

Remember than when Netbank went down last year, people over 100K limit did NOT get the full amount back. IIRC, it was something like 50c on $. So that will hurt.

I don't think stocks held at Etrade are at risk. But that's not an expert opinion, just knowledge that I have gathered from various web-sites. But even the stock portfolios can be moved to a different broker. It can take more than 2 weeks to transfer, and cost some fee, so make sure you are comfortable with those things.

FWIW, I have moved all my cash out of Etrade. Even for money markets, I have moved to Treasury Only MM funds.

* NOT AN ADVICE

Well I was under fdic at etrade, then I trasferred old 401k to them recently from old job....now over... Its confusing what is covered by FDIC as I have a mixture of CD's,stocks,mm 'sweep' account, treasuries with them.

Certainly I will move everything out of etr tomorrow - they just borrowed 2.5b and are again out of cash and also the market cap is only 1b today?(thats what i read) anyone paying attention has to pull everything out of them asap IMO, i love that company too - ez to use via internet.

its a sad day. I wonder if both lowes AND hd will survive the multi year housing recession we are now in? Anyone remember Builders Emporium, House2Home?

HelloKitty,

bite the bullet and take your money out from etrade, you only lose a bit of penalty fee if you pull out your CDs. Beware though, there are already different tales of how difficult it is to ACAT etrade accounts to other brokerages, I have a friend who started doing it at the first sign of distress and the ACAT process took almost a month due to difficulty on etrade side, understandably, because they will do everything possible to slow you down. Try to fill out the forms in their office, so if there are problems, you can catch it right away instead of going back and forth with their customer service on phone.

For your CD, you can just pull it right away and transfer to another bank (recommend BOA, too big to fail). Your 401K is insured by SPIC and the limit is $500K. Your CD is covered by FDIC for up to $100K.

@OO,
thanks for the advice, i will move everything - cd first.

I read they have some insane amount of money in 2nd mortgages which are impozzible to sell aparently and they need cash.... interesting situation.

Sadness .... Hilary won...

PermaRenter Says:
Sadness …. Hilary won…

If she gets the nomination, I will have to vote Republican (even if it is Sucakabee or Giuliunatic).

I will vote for whoever that is running against Hillary.

Say NO to the uberbitch.

Actually etrade has had some shady practice for a while. I'd highly recommend Schwab, Ameritrade and Scottrade, especially Schwab, excellent service and fast execution. I have placed same orders at both Schwab and Ameritrade, since I am a cheapo, I always set the target price so low that only very few shares changed hand at that price point, Schwab's execution was consistently better in capturing the desired bottom for me.

I used to have an etrade account that was inactive for many years because their service and execution was the worst compared to the ones mentioned above. In early 2007, I decided to close my etrade account, yet I suddenly got slapped a monthly charge of $40 for every month that I did NO trade at all. I was livid and couldn't argue off the charge. At that point I knew etrade was in revenue or liquidity trouble, so even at the risk of provoking customers, they still try to grab every single penny possible. I ended up paying $440 bye-bye fee to etrade, and it is a brokerage that I vow never to return to. Well, it looks like that even if I want to return, they won't be around.

To any expert in bay area,

I have CDs at Technology Credit Union (TechCU). Is that money insured
in any way like FDIC for banks? I found there is NCUSIF for some credit
unions. However I can't easily see if that covers TechCU.

Thanks.

Look on the bottom right of their home page. You will see they are insured by the NCUA. Here is the page for the NCUA for your information. The answer in a nutshell is yes, credit union deposits are insured just like the FDIC does for banks.

http://www.ncua.gov/

OT, I thought Obama's speech was a little too MLK. What has he ever changed? There's going to be a change, that's for sure. There's going to be some hard times hit this country. How does a guy like Obama stand up to a guy like Putin? We will look like a declining nation if Obama gets elected. Our system would look like a failure if we put a man in office with his experience.
The sad thing is that I'm not sure we have a candidate that stacks up to a Putin. George Bush may not have been so bad afterall. At least he's willing to kick some ass and put the nutzo's in check. We dont have a candidate that stacks up to a George Bush. Nobody will admit that. As a politician, he'd kick all their asses,

empty houses,

Obama is the only mainstream candidate that had the good sense to vote against giving George Bush the authority to start a war.

Obama's detractors are trying to use it against him that he later voted for additional funding of the war after it had started. That is a completely bogus argument. Why did Obama do that? Because without money and equipment, soldiers die. He was trying to make the best of a bad situation created by George Bush.

Bush is the one that needs to check his nuts. His nuts have gotten us a giant amount of trouble already, and cost >100k lives around the world.

Putin is a rational and intelligent leader, and a better leader than George Bush. Putin gets lots of bad press in the west, but the motivation for giving him bad press is hidden. He gets it mainly because he undid the "privatization" (stealing of public property) that happened under Yeltsin. Of course all the corporate media is going to try and make him look bad. No surprise there. If the US media judged Bush by the same standard that they apply to Putin, Bush would have been impeached long time ago.

RE: ETrade

It's easy to go over the FDIC limit at ETrade because a lot of companies (especially in tech) use ETrade for their stock options management. Add in a 401k and a few CDs or a money market and people can go over $100K without realizing it. Luckily, anything held in ETrade versus ETrade Bank should fall under SIPC which is $500K, as I understand it.

Related, does anyone have experience with Interactive Brokers? I'm not convinced Schwab is reasonable for the occasionally active trader. (But IB may be similarly unsuitable from the other extreme).

@BayAreaIdiot

Thanks for the kind words, of which I am certainly undeserving. In the final analysis, we're all just bloggers after all. Happy new year to you too.

OO Says:
I will vote for whoever that is running against Hillary.

I would do the same, but for a different reason. I am disgusted with her sexist campaign, which relies on variations of "vote for me because I am a woman".

Just as I would be repelled by a candidate who asked for a vote "because I am a man", or "because I am white".

Just me,
I'm just saying that as a politician running for office, Bush is better at it than the candidates we have now. That's why he's in the White House two terms. Most of us Bay Area people forget that just like we forget 911. The terrorist attacks stopped when we invaded Iraq. How's that for spin.
One could say that Bush saved us from another attack as easily as you can say he's responsible for 100k deaths.

Countrywide Home Loan Delinquencies Rise
Countrywide's Home Loan Delinquencies Surge, Stock Drops

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Countrywide Financial Corp.'s shares tumbled for the second day Wednesday after the nation's largest mortgage lender said the delinquency and foreclosure rate of home loans in its portfolio surged in December.

The news drove Countrywide shares down almost 10 percent in midday trading. Shares slipped 54 cents to $4.93.

The drop followed a loss of $2.17, or 28.4 percent, on Tuesday.

The company said some 6.96 percent of the loans in its servicing portfolio were delinquent last month, up from 5.02 percent in December 2006.

GOOG is steadily falling:

Date Open High Low Close Volume Adj Close*
8-Jan-08 653.00 659.96 631.00 631.68 5,339,100 631.68
7-Jan-08 653.94 662.28 637.35 649.25 6,403,400 649.25
4-Jan-08 679.69 680.96 655.00 657.00 5,359,800 657.00
3-Jan-08 685.26 686.85 676.52 685.33 3,252,500 685.33
2-Jan-08 692.87 697.37 677.73 685.19 4,306,900 685.19
31-Dec-07 698.57 702.49 690.58 691.48 2,376,200 691.48
28-Dec-07 704.93 707.95 696.54 702.53 2,537,000 702.53
27-Dec-07 707.07 716.00 700.74 700.74 2,942,500 700.74
26-Dec-07 698.99 713.22 698.21 710.84 2,530,000 710.84

Randy,

stay AWAY from Interactive Broker, the worst of the pack.

I have heard at least two horror stories of using them for transferring account. It is very easy to transfer in, but man, if you want to ACAT out, you will fight much harder than with Etrade.

I have a friend who is so disgruntled with IB that he sent out a group mail to all his friends urging them to stay away. He is still battling this issue as far as I know. Let me see if I can retrieve his email and perhaps post here without divulging too much personal details.

[i]I would do the same, but for a different reason. I am disgusted with her sexist campaign, which relies on variations of “vote for me because I am a woman”.

Just as I would be repelled by a candidate who asked for a vote “because I am a man”, or “because I am white”.[/i]

I was operating in the same line of thought except I was extending it to Obama too. Possibly unfair since he hasn't really said he's running as a black man. Maybe just my knee-jerk reaction to the media portraying him as JFK 2.0, for no good reason.

Now stunned by his success, I have to figure out what he's about - other than hot air that is...Feb 5 is fast approaching.