<p>Figured you took a vacation day. ;)</p>
<p>:)…</p>
<p>Won’t be around much tomorrow either…</p>
<p>What am I going to miss?</p>
<p>I see the banks are rallying a little bit after hours.</p>
<p>And the es futures are up small.</p>
<p>Yesterday I read a new, huge wave of foreclosures is on the horizon - possibly bigger than
what has been so far.</p>
<p>Has anyone else heard this?</p>
<p>Banks are up after hours because Moodys didn’t think they stink terribly, just a generic stench. 
If i recall Moddys thought highly of Lehman and AIG, so who cares what they say…</p>
<p>The problem with Moody’s is if they lower ratings…borrowing costs rise…Profiits decline…The banks have to put up more capital…</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter if Moody’s is correct or not…</p>
<p>But isn’t it done to alert/protect investors when market conditions turn against companies?</p>
<p>Maybe…</p>
<p>I want to see the downgrades…even if they are wrong…</p>
<p>Some firms can only invest in investment grade bonds…</p>
<p>So Morgan Stanley for example…is getting close to losing its investment grade…</p>
<p>[News</a> Headlines](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/47912905]News”>Moody's Downgrade of Banks ‘Absurd,’ Says Dick Bove)</p>
<p>Dick Bove is Dennis Gartman , have you ever seen them together?.. Seriously, why listen to these guys…</p>
<p>[Should</a> You Listen to Dick Bove? - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/cfainstitute/2012/04/18/should-you-listen-to-dick-bove/2/]Should”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/cfainstitute/2012/04/18/should-you-listen-to-dick-bove/2/)</p>
<p>Quite honestly - I don’t know why you would listen to anybody - including anybody here - myself included.</p>
<p>The downgrades were expected…MS was actually slightly less than expected.</p>
<p>[Credit</a> Suisse Cut 3 Levels as Moody’s Downgrades Biggest Banks - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-suisse-cut-3-levels-212701308.html]Credit”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-suisse-cut-3-levels-212701308.html)</p>
<p>"The downgrades may affect the competitive landscape in derivatives that aren’t centrally cleared, a business that provides about 15 percent of the industry’s trading revenue, Kinner Lakhani, a Citigroup Inc. (C) analyst, wrote in an April 30 note. Banks with the largest cuts may lose revenue from such long-term derivatives, Charles Peabody, an analyst with Portales Partners LLC, said in a June 4 interview on the “Bloomberg Surveillance” radio program.
“Right now there are a lot of internal bank policies that if you’re doing a longer-term structured derivative, you want the counterparty to be A-rated or above,” said David Konrad, an analyst at KBW Inc. in New York. Because Moody’s is downgrading the entire banking industry rather than one or two firms, “a lot of those policies may be rewritten over time.”
A three-level cut for Morgan Stanley (MS) could cost it $400 million in annual trading revenue from those types of derivative deals, estimated Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., before Moody’s released its decisions.
More Collateral</p>
<p>The downgrades also may hasten obligations to post additional collateral and termination payments. New York-based Morgan Stanley said last month it may face payments of $9.61 billion in the event of a three-level cut from Moody’s and two grades by Standard & Poor’s, according to a filing based on March 31 data. The total included $7.21 billion in collateral.
Credit Suisse said in its annual report that a three-level downgrade in the bank’s long-term debt ratings would result in additional collateral requirements or termination payments under certain derivative instruments of 4.5 billion Swiss francs ($4.7 billion), as of Dec. 31. UBS said it would face 2.1 billion francs of collateral calls from a two-level cut.
Banks’ large liquidity buffers will make collateral requirements “manageable,” Amit Goel, a Credit Suisse analyst, wrote in a May report.</p>
<p>‘New World’</p>
<p>“Pre-crisis bank ratings used to be clustered together,” Lakhani wrote. “In the new world, dispersion has increased. Markets tend to discriminate more between issuers at lower ratings – in terms of funding costs. Over time, this could provide a competitive edge for higher-rated firms,” including HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBA) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)"</p>
<p>[Book</a> Takes a Look Inside Professional Day Trading - SmartMoney.com](<a href=“Stock investment news - MarketWatch”>Stock investment news - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>Definitely a young man’s game</p>
<p>Like i have been saying</p>
<p>[NY</a> Times: Chinese Falsifying Data to Mask Slowdown](<a href=“http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/china-economy-data-slowdown/2012/06/24/id/443256]NY”>http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/china-economy-data-slowdown/2012/06/24/id/443256)</p>
<p>Played tennis with a friend - he told us today that he starts a new job tomorrow morning. His management asked him to travel a lot more for his job and he said no so they let him go. He was looking for two to three months. This guy is in his 60s so it appears that age discrimination isn’t a factor with him.</p>
<p>BTW, this guy doesn’t need to work from what I can tell. He has a gorgeous house on a huge amount of land and he didn’t work for several years earlier in the past decade.</p>
<p>So…I see the stock market rallied Friday and is selling off a little right now…</p>
<p>BunsenBurner…looks like the biotechs had another good day on Friday.</p>
<p>BCEagle91…I am glad to read that things have worked out for your 60+ year old friend.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure age discrimination would be a factor for me. Very sure. A friend of mine was a top salesman at GS…and GS said good-bye when my friend was in his forties. I was talking today to a guy today who sold computer equipment for Data General, EMC, and a couple of other firms
and he is retired…but…he told me firms want younger salesmen and tend to want to replace their salesmen when they are in their forties. Just a couple of anecdotes…but I have seen more…
Maybe…you have seen different experiences.</p>
<p>Yes, dstark, they did. I could lose all of the gains by the next Tue, then get them back again. Two steps forward, one step back. Or is it two steps back, one step forward? ;)</p>
<p>Wanted: a speculative biotech to fill a small position in my growth portfolio. Which companies should I consider looking at?</p>
<p>Antares ,ATRS…maybe wait for a pullback…</p>