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Cramer on BloggingStocks: The post-mark-up could sting industrials

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says stock prices may roll back, but techs and financials should be fine.

The pain of the aftermath of mark-ups never goes away. We knew what was in store for us, as the mark-up folks don't like to play on the last day, especially with the newly vigilant Securities and Exchange Commission. I have to believe that this SEC will now become more interested in "the tapes," which would show clients asking brokers to take stocks up as much as they can, something that we know is against the law.

What comes up from mark-up must come down, and the most important "come-downs" should be in the industrials, because we have the least visibility in them. I do not believe the techs have as much to worry about, nor the banks, because both have excellent earnings prospects for the coming quarter. Why sell Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) here? Why sell Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer's Take)? And why dump Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) or Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) or JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) when those have the best possibilities of good news ahead? I can see locking in some Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) gains, but that's going to be the best quarter of all.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The post-mark-up could sting industrials

M&A plunges, investment banks find money elsewhere

Mergers and acquisitions aren't delivering the fees that investment bankers used to enjoy, but fortunately, the money's coming from elsewhere. Data from Thomson Reuters reports a 29% increase in capital markets and M&A fees for the first time in more than a year. Share sales (e.g., rights offerings) were where dealmakers found the action. In the shrinking M&A space, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has taken the lead spot.

Since there are fewer banks in the marketplace than there were a year ago -- and they have less money -- the capital is starting to come from elsewhere. Because they aren't lending at their previous pace, companies are issuing bonds and equity to replenish their coffers. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), for example, raked in more than $23 billion from the bond market to fund its acquisition of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), and Roche nabbed Genentech with the help of a $30 billion debt issuance.

Continue reading M&A plunges, investment banks find money elsewhere

Closing Bell: Another day of excuses to sell (BA, GS, MS, MGM, ORCL, SPEX

The FOMC decision to keep rates at near-zero and risk inflation ahead did little to spur any excitement from equity traders. Or maybe that was just an excuse to sell after Warren Buffett said there are no green shoots out there.

This was on the heels of a solid durable goods number and on the heels of weak new home sales. It seems that news is just an excuse to pare down positions now in case we get that solid pullback so many traders were hoping for. Here are today's closing bell levels:

Dow 8,299.86 -23.05 (-0.28%)
S&P 500 900.92 +5.82 (0.65%)
Nasdaq 1,792.34 +27.42 (1.55%)

Top 10 Analyst Calls

Continue reading Closing Bell: Another day of excuses to sell (BA, GS, MS, MGM, ORCL, SPEX

Goldman Sachs employees to receive record bonuses

Reportedly, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) staff will be receiving the largest bonus payouts in the company's 150-year history, thanks to a solid first half of 2009. This news has kicked off a bit of concern that large investment banks that survived the credit crunch would hamper any attempts at financial regulation reforms. The main reason that Goldman Sachs was able to perform well in the quarter was a general lack of competition and a surge in revenue thanks to the company's trading of foreign currency, bonds, and fixed-income products.

A week ago, the London staff of Goldman Sachs was told that they could expect larger bonuses -- as long as the company's predictions for its most profitable year ever come to fruition. Next month's second-quarter earnings report are expected to show a jump in profits. An example of how strong the quarter was, Warren Buffet spent $5 billion to purchase GS shares in January -- and the Oracle of Omaha has made $1 billion on this investment.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs employees to receive record bonuses

$12.9 trillion for economic recovery. Where is it?

Here is today's quiz. If you were given $1,000,000 to spend each day, how many days would it take you to spend $12.2 trillion dollars? You are probably wondering where the number $12.2 trillion came from? Well, this is the amount of money the government has committed for economic recovery.

Some of the monies can be accounted for but its still a big mystery where the rest went. So far we know this:

Continue reading $12.9 trillion for economic recovery. Where is it?

Options Update: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley volatility low into EPS

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) closed at $145.64. GS is expected to report Q2 EPS soon. GS June 145 straddle is priced at $6.10, July 145 straddle is priced at $15.50. GS July option implied volatility of 45 is below its 26-week average of 75, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) closed at $29.70. MS is expected to report Q2 EPS soon. MS June 30 straddle is priced at $1.75, July 30 is priced at $4.05. MS July option implied volatility of 54 is below its 26-week average of 91, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Goldman CEO Blankfein cautious on recovery

Talk of "green shoots" abounds with the S&P 500 up 40% from its lows in March 2009, but Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein remains cautious in his outlook for the global economy. "I think it's going to be a long, protracted recession," he said while speaking on a panel at the annual International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) conference in Tel Aviv.

Blankfein also emphasized the importance of intelligent regulation and risk management, warning fellow finance executives not to discount the latter. "The culture of risk management is very important and hard to legislate, but at the end of the day, you have to make sure that the people on the risk management side of your operation are just as capable, and maybe therefore, just as well-paid and have the career opportunities as people on the producing side of the business."

Continue reading Goldman CEO Blankfein cautious on recovery

Fed to okay TARP repayment for some banks, appoint a Pay Czar

This morning, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected announce that some banks will be allowed to repay the money lent to them under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Some of the banks expected to receive approval are Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), State Street (NYSE: STT) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB). All of these banks have expressed interest in repaying the government.

What is interesting is that there will be yet another Czar joining the White House, a "Repayment Czar," (what is the deal with the media's fascination with Russian royalty?) or as the administration will call the position, the "Special Master for Compensation."

Continue reading Fed to okay TARP repayment for some banks, appoint a Pay Czar

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Inflow of money trumps the bad news

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Mutual Fund Monday is alive and well.

Here we go: Bias says sell off. Time for a selloff. After being up for nine out of 11 weeks, it's time we went down. We should go down because we don't know what's going to happen, and Europe's down, and oil's down. Housing's awful and rates are going the wrong way for housing.

Next we are going to hear the whole move was phony, that only a handful of banks -- maybe just JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) and Goldman (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) -- can pay back TARP -- and that the banking system is still weak and will remain weak because the recovery will be weak.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Inflow of money trumps the bad news

Oil closes the week down after breaking through $70

Earlier this week we were looking at oil prices, and wondering if we would see the precious crude break through the psychological $70 barrier, and that is exactly what we saw today.

For the first time since last November, oil prices were briefly above $70 today, moving up as high as $70.32 before profit taking pushed oil prices down on the day. We finished up the week at $68.44, down 37 cents.

Continue reading Oil closes the week down after breaking through $70

Closing Bell: When green shoots turn to blooms (AAPL, BAC, COST, GS, VLO)

Today was looking like a fairly quiet day with no solid direction, but the green shoots crowd got some actual good news on the jobs front. This was the first report since once in January where the massive army of continuing jobless claims actually fell. We also saw a positive report showing positive CEO Sentiment again for the month of May. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,750.24 +74.96 (0.86%)
S&P 500 942.46 +10.70 (1.15%)
Nasdaq 1,850.02 +24.10 (1.32%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Continue reading Closing Bell: When green shoots turn to blooms (AAPL, BAC, COST, GS, VLO)

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Hey banks -- stop your bellyaching

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says it's not too much to ask that banks have enough money to loan to customers and to pay back TARP.

Bankers who complain about having to raise more money to pay back the Troubled Asset Relief Program ought to be real careful here about their insistence that the rules have been changed.

Never did Treasury say, "If you raise this money, you can pay TARP back." What it did say was, "If you raise this money, you can stay in business."

Given that most of the banks that raised the $85 billion probably could have gone by the wayside, I don't think there's all that much to be said about the government demanding that the banks have enough money on hand to loan to customers and to pay back TARP. Is that really too high a price to pay?

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Hey banks -- stop your bellyaching

Goldman gets a $1.9 billion pick up

Over the past couple months, major financial institutions have been scrambling to raise large amounts of capital -- so as to ultimately payoff government loans. Just take a look at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), which has $10 billion in TARP loans.

This week, the firm sold a piece of its equity stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), pulling in a cool $1.9 billion. The massive Chinese bank -- which has a market cap of $220 billion -- is listed in Hong Kong.

Yet, Goldman still holds a significant stake in ICBC; that is, about 4%. Actually, the firm won't be able to sell any more shares until April 28, 2010, when a contractual lock-up expires.

Continue reading Goldman gets a $1.9 billion pick up

Goldman Sachs lost out on Twitter to some dude named Gary

The most powerful investment bank on the planet boasts a respected team of technology analysts. But Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) seemed to miss the boat on grabbing a good Twitter handle. The company tweets under @GS_News (and it has plenty of useful tweets).

A logical handle would have been @GS, same as its ticker symbol, but some dude name Gary grabbed the @GS twitter handle. He's got less than 10 followers right now. What might be a possible business opportunity for Gary, is a Fail Whale for the Goldman Sachs brain trust.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs lost out on Twitter to some dude named Gary

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Moving to China

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says besides the basket plays, you can nibble at the parts suppliers like Taiwan Semi and SanDisk.

The pain of coming in on a day like today is unfathomable. But get used to it. We have first of the month and Mutual Fund Monday and roaring Asian markets and worldwide stimulus. The money coming in over the transom seems to be accelerating as people sense that the GM (NYSE: GM) (Cramer's Take) news is long in the stock market and there doesn't seem to be a crisis at hand that can stop us today. I say "today" because I am sure by the end of the day the higher-inflation/higher-taxes mob will have ginned up something to make the markets less appetizing than they seem.

But I think you shouldn't be so daunted about coming in here. Our markets are way behind so many others, including Europe -- that's probably a mistake at this point -- but most especially anything China.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Moving to China

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Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-223.328,280.74
NASDAQ-49.201,796.52
S&P 500-26.91896.42

Last updated: July 02, 2009: 11:52 PM

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