Off to a fabulous start to the week after serious pain last week

[harry123]

Here it is 9:40 and the Dow is already up 100 points. That is good news. The market was cheered by the backstop that Treasury put behind Freddie and Fannie.

But what has me excited is that there ave been two big banking mergers in the last week, and another company is on the prowl in the US. All of these companies have strong balance sheets.

The first is Credit Mutuel's acquisition of Citibank's German subsidiary. See post here:
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/07/citi-close-to-selling-german-unit.html

This acquisition has since gone through.

Then there is the acquisition of the UK bank Alliance and Leicester by Banco Santander. See post here:
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/07/santander-buying-alliance-leicester-for.html

Santander is a strong global player and is going to be a force to be reckoned with if the Spanish housing market doesn't cause it some major writedowns going forward. Stay tuned.

The last big deal is BBVA, another Spanish bank, going on the prowl in the Sun Belt here in the ol' US of A. They already have a presence but they are increasing it and that is good for the strength of US finance and for credit availability going forward.

Here's the link:
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/07/spains-bbva-making-push-in-us.html

All in all, this is the most positive day I have seen in months for global financial institutions. Enjoy it!

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Run On The Banks This Week

Watch for it.

[ixion]

2. yep, we're nearing a tipping point

it's a big sh*t sandwich, and we're all gonna have to take a bite, as the saying goes.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. The Feds Announced That 150 Banks May Go Under Soon

And one big one (IndyMac) got taken down on Friday, and the two owners of half of the US's mortgage debt had to be saved by the government - a government which doesn't have enough money to save them, they have to ask Congress for more money. And, the drop in housing prices is accelerating, not slowing.

Fortunately, the Predator Class won't be hurt by this - Bush and Congress will see to that.

[harry123]

9. Run on banks is a possibility

I'd have to agree, unfortunately. Where's that hollow mattress I had around for just these occasions?

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. The gains have already been cut in half.

Dow +57
NASDAQ +3
S&P +6

Bush's announcement to lift the ban on offshore drilling seemed perfectly timed to stop the slide.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. At 10:30, they were all in negative territory. nt

[MercutioATC]

6. There's a huge psychological resistance point at 11k.

We'll bounce off 11k for a while, but I'm expecting under 10k by September 1.

[girl gone mad]

7. Fabulously bad, yes.

[harry123]

8. Week's start has turned sour in a hurry

So much for optimism. What looked good this morning is now looking like crap again. As investors abandon financials lie rats leaving a sinking ship one has to wonder.....who's next.

As a deposit holder the IndyMac thing is scary. Therefore, I have written a little blurb on what and how much the FDIC insures.

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/07/some-people-may-get-stiffed-by-fdic.html

The long and short of it is: you get $100K as an individual and $200K as a couple spread across all your accounts. Read the link for more.

If you have more than100K with the same institution, put it somewhere else. Better safe than sorry.