"Goldman Sachs is a rogue firm that ought to be shut down"

Charlie Rose Panel on AIG with Meredith Whitney

And more Meredith, if you have a crush like me...

Saturday Rock Blog: Sure Shot or Can't/Won't/Don't Stop the Bailouts

Bear Stearns bailed out by JPM bailed out by feds
FNM and FRE bailed out by feds
GS bailed out by BRKA
MS bailed out by MUFG
AIG $130B in bridge loan bailouts
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Citigroup gets $45B then splits up
GM $13B warm-up bailout
Crystler gets $5.5B in warm-up bailouts
CFC & MER bailed out by BAC bailed out by feds

What am I forgetting?

Update:
Throw BofA and Citi out of the Dow!

Saturday Rock Blogging: Who'll Stop the Rain

This one goes out to all the unfortunate souls of the Galveston West end, our thoughts and prayers are with you. There was a hurricane hitting the financial markets last week as well, and we are taking on water fast:


Part of the reason for the massive drop in AIG last week was related to worries of more credit losses, but they also insure property and life in Texas where major damage is expected. Hurricane Ike added fuel to an already raging fire and $30B in equity vanished last week as the stock plummeted. Who'll stop the pain?

Nightmare on Wall Street 3: Enter Sandman

With Halloween approaching and blood all over markets I thought that it was time for another installment of Nightmare on Wall Street, part three. The eight below are hourly plots of some of the worst blugeoned stocks over the past two weeks. I want to stress that these are not just some no-name penny stocks that are dropping like stones in freshwater, we saw Washington Mutual drop more than 50% before rebounding a little yesterday afternoon:

And of course we all know about the governemnt sponsored entity (GSE) that manages half the US mortgage market, Fannie Mae (FNM). Thats some serious market value (about $8B) that just got decapitated:

I don't know about youbut when I look at these charts, Metallica just comes to mind. The destruction, the horror, the scale of it all, enter sandman:



Lehman Brothers (LEH), one of the biggest US financial institutions in the US, founded in 1850, is at the center of the most recent panic. LEH appears to be about to file for bankruptcy as evidenced by reports of their inability to raise capital at any cost and their rapidly declining market value (currently $3B (and falling)):

Taking a step back to look at the broader picture, the S&P 500 hasn't really declined all that much in magnitude yet but the chart is anything but bullish. The benchmark index still lies below major resistance at 1265 and the declining short and long term trendlines. Any rallies are sharp and quick to get sold, I doubt the S&P can move much higher before heading back down to test the recent lows:


So there's evidence that this relentless selling is not isolated to the financials. Take a look at Apple, ouch. Some important longer term trends and support levels have been diced on AAPL this week, I have puts:

Not even our good renewable friend JASO is immune to the power selling:


Oh, and how could I forget about AIG, it one of the dow components and the 18th largest company in the world. AIG has lost almost 30% (about $30B in market cap) since Monday morning:


This last one is more for fun since it doesn't demonstrate a significant downtrend in the short term. To keep with the theme, United Airlines (UAUA) did get bludgeoned pretty bad earlier this week when Bloomberg incorrectly reported that United had filed for bankruptcy. The stock lost nearly all of its value in a few minutes before recovering:


These must be long sleepless nights for the dudes on Wall Street. Unfortunately, the waking life does not escape the nightmares in the headlines. It seems we will be hearing news of market gore for some time to come.

In other news, the bears are getting aggressive.