The News Review:
- Joe Investor socked by auction-rate securities freeze – Mar. 31, 2008
- French Company Wins Auction for Vodka Maker
- Hollywood auction fetches $4.1 million
- Message from Auction-Rate Securities Is Not a Good One
- With a new CEO, online auction site tries to deal with competition
- UBS holds $5.9 bln auction-rate securities; news on capital hike by…
- Auctions hammered as slowdown signs grow
Joe Investor socked by auction-rate securities freeze – Mar. 31, 2008
cnn.com – Mar 31, 2008
Joe Investor is hurting tooBig brokerage firms aren’t the only ones socked by the freeze in an arcane investment known as auction-rate securities. Everyday investors are wheezing too.
Related: Progress of Bush administration’s Hope Now questioned as foreclosu…
French Company Wins Auction for Vodka Maker
New York Times – Mar 31, 2008
63 billion euros ($8. 63 billion euros ($8.
Hollywood auction fetches $4.1 million
Forbes – Mar 31, 2008
(AP) – An oversized six-sheet poster for the 1933 film classic ‘King Kong’ fetched $345,000 to top all items at a two-day auction of Hollywood memorabilia. 1 million – Forbes.
Message from Auction-Rate Securities Is Not a Good One
thestreet.com – Mar 31, 2008
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In another chapter of the continuing saga surrounding the auction-rate securities market, UBS (UBS) announced late Friday that it would reflect the illiquidity of these notes in customer accounts with a 5% devaluation. The message being sent here is unmistakable to me and has to impact how we should view the general market and financial stocks in particular. Let me give a little background and then update you to explain what I mean. As I outlined previously, an otherwise reliable instrument mostly used by high-net-worth wealth managers has recently gone awry. Investment banks figured out a way many years ago to repackage long-term, mostly tax-free debt in a different and advantageous way.
With a new CEO, online auction site tries to deal with competition
USA Today – Mar 31, 2008
As eBay readies for the post-Meg-Whitman era, and new CEO John Donahoe takes over today, it faces fierce challenges in a Web 2. 0 era defined by armies of agile competitors. Running eBay could be a daunting task. The former dot-com darling has lost some of its luster and is reinventing itself to reverse years of slowing growth in its auction marketplace, where millions trade online selling to the highest bidder or at a fixed price.
UBS holds $5.9 bln auction-rate securities; news on capital hike by…
Forbes – Mar 31, 2008
9 billion as of December, 31, 2007 but declined to comment on whether the bank’s own positions are also subject to reevaluation. ‘The reevaluation of auction-rate securities of clients do not allow any conclusion on our own holdings,’ a spokeswoman said. Over the weekend, the Swiss bank confirmed that it is cutting the value of auction-rate securities in its brokerage customers’ accounts adding to speculation of further write-downs and a fresh capital hike. The group declined to disclose the total value of auction-rate securities held for clients.
Related: Progress of Bush administration’s Hope Now questioned as foreclosu…
Auctions hammered as slowdown signs grow
The Age – Mar 31, 2008
In Sydney, barely half the properties auctioned on Saturday weresold. And in Melbourne, the overall clearance rate for the weekendwas 63%, down from a consistent 80% to 90% last year. The slowing follows a spate of interest rate rises, by theReserve and commercial banks, that have lifted the standardvariable rate on home mortgages from 8.