From the monthly archives:
One of the “Big Three” automakers — Chrysler LLC — has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Here is an excerpt from a Bloomberg story on the filing:
“Chrysler LLC, the smallest of the Big Three U.S. automakers, filed today for bankruptcy protection in New York to streamline operations and shed debt in a reorganization that [...]
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The Federal Open Market Committee just wrapped up its latest policy meeting. Noteworthy: The Fed left its mortgage backed security (MBS) and Treasury buying targets unchanged. The complete FOMC statement follows:
“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that the economy has continued to contract, though the pace of contraction appears [...]
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There’s some interesting market action in the Treasury arena today. The long bond futures are getting blitzed, with a price decline of 1 2/32 at last check. Moreover, the yield on the 10-year note is once again testing the 3% area (a gain of about 10 basis points on the day).
The immediate catalyst appears to [...]
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The latest figures from S&P/Case-Shiller continue to show home prices falling, though the rate of decline has stabilized a bit. The 20-city index dropped at an 18.6% year-over-year rate in February, compared with 19% in the prior month. On a monthly basis, the index fell 2.2%. That compared with a decline of 2.8% a month [...]
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The official results of the banking sector stress test have not yet been released. But the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that two potential casualties will be Citigroup and Bank of America. Specifically, the Journal says the feds want both institutions to raise billions of dollars more in capital, though the banks are reportedly [...]
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March existing home sales figures were released this morning. Here’s what the data showed:
* Existing home sales fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million units from 4.71 million in February. That was slightly below the forecast for a reading of 4.65 million. Single-family sales dipped 2.8%, while condo and cooperative sales [...]
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While there have been some “green shoots” emerging in the residential real estate market in select areas, there is nothing of the sort happening in the commercial real estate (CRE) market. Commercial lags residential during declines and recoveries, and I believe we are still deeply mired in a CRE cesspool. Of course, some of us [...]
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The International Monetary Fund just released its latest Global Financial Stability Report. You can download the entire, mammoth 237-page PDF here if you’re so inclined. But the headline is that the IMF has increased its estimate of the ultimate cost of the credit crisis. The organization now says the crisis could ultimately cost $4.1 trillion [...]
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This past weekend was the bike ride/race I first mentioned in a Money and Markets column back in January. I’m happy to report that I did in fact cross the finish line on my bike, rather than on a stretcher! The 100-kilometer ride took about 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete and I couldn’t have [...]
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The combination of the expiration of temporary foreclosure moratoriums, rising unemployment, and falling home prices all combined to drive foreclosure filings to a record high in March, according to RealtyTrac (see chart above). Filings surged 17.4% from 290,631 in February to 341,180 in March. On a year-over-year basis, filings are up a hefty 46.4%.
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