Stories related to: Bear Stearns

JPMorgan Chase was in negotiations last night to quintuple its bid for Bear Stearns following a storm of angry protests by Bear shareholders over the initial bargain-basement deal for the investment banking giant, reports the New York Times . Under the new deal, JPMorgan Chase would pay $1 billion—$10 a share, up from the initial offer of $2 a share, which represented just one-fifteenth of Bear’s market price. More »

Lawmakers are debating how to regulate and oversee financial institutions to prevent another Bear Stearns near-catastrophe. But exactly what that solution should look like depends on who's doing the proposing. President Bush and Wall Street say that Washington's heavy hand could hamstring the industry’s ability to innovate, reports the New York Times. Democratic lawmakers contend it’s time to tighten controls to prevent future meltdowns. More »

We've hit bottom, Jim Cramer proclaims. Bear Stearns' collapse may have been apocalyptic in scale, but it at least woke up a complacent Fed and Treasury secretary, the bombastic market guru writes in New York today. “We’ve been through dozens of false bottoms,” he says, but now Bernanke and Paulson are “basically saying they will do anything to save the system.” More »

The epic collapse of Bear Stearns didn't mean bad news for everyone on Wall Street—several big hedge funds made a mint off it, the Wall Street Journal reports. The funds essentially placed bets that Bear would stumble, then raked in millions when the security firm's shares took a nosedive. The SEC is investigating to make sure profiteers did not have insider knowledge of the coming collapse. More »

Bear Stearns will provide grief counseling for employees facing decimated stock holdings, and the possible loss of their jobs, after the bank's sale to JP Morgan, ABC News reports. "Anything that effects human behavior or emotions at work are the areas where we focus," says one such professional. An average Bear employee who had $200,00 in company stock now has only $2,000. More »

The credit crisis that’s roiled financial markets has its genesis in the housing boom that began in 1998, David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times . The boom led lenders to create new financing options—including subprime loans—as investors saw potential for huge returns. Low interest rates encouraged investors, and homeowners, to stretch themselves too thin—and the seeds of crisis were planted. More »

Bear Stearns shareholders are threatening to vote against its sale to JPMorgan, saying the $2 price per share for the nation’s fifth largest investment bank is unrealistic; speculators seem to agree, trading up Bear stock to $5.91 yesterday, a 23% bump. Expect some serious brinkmanship to force a higher offer or lure another bid, reports the Wall Street Journal . More »

Hank Paulson came closer than ever to conceding that the economy is in recession in a series of interviews yesterday, Reuters reports. Weary after a weekend in which he helped to broker Bear Stearns' fire sale to JPMorgan, the treasury secretary avoided the R-word but admitted: "There's no doubt that the American people know that the economy has turned down sharply. So to me much less important is the label that's placed on it today." More »

Bear Stearns shares jumped 23% today on hopes that stockholders will reject JPMorgan's bailout offer in favor of a higher offer, Bloomberg reports. The surge moved the price to nearly three times the current value of the fire-sale bid, which one major stockholder termed "derisory." "There's every incentive for shareholders to vote 'no' the first time," said one analyst. More »

Lehman Brothers, which yesterday lost 19% of its market value, today reported a 57% drop in net income for the first quarter and a 31% drop in net revenue. But those dire figures still beat analyst forecasts, sending the stock up 12% in premarket trading, the Wall Street Journal reports. The earnings were brought low by a $1.8 billion mortgage writedown. More »

After a collapse of confidence sank Bear Stearns last week, some traders are betting that Lehman Brothers will be the next victim of the credit crunch. Its stock went on a rollercoaster ride yesterday—plunging 40% at one point and closing down 19%, the biggest fall since the firm went public. But analysts, wary of giving vultures more reasons to circle, are watching what they say about the brokerage firm, Marketwatch reports. More »

Stocks seesawed throughout the day, finally ending today's session mixed, with the Dow closing up. The markets struggled to rebound from serious losses sustained after Bear Stearns' fire sale; buyer JPMorgan Chase's stock closed up 11%. The Dow ended up 21.16 at 11,972.25, the Nasdaq down 35.48 at 2,177.01, and the S&P 500 down 11.54 at 1,276.70. More »

JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon is a hands-on boss who writes out a detailed to-do list each morning and has managed to keep his company healthy while many of its rivals are ailing or even critically ill, reports the Wall Street Journal. Dimon's focus has been on creating a bank strong enough to withstand any crisis. Investors say he’s succeeded. More »

Ben Bernanke has employed virtually every tool in the Federal Reserve's kit to calm markets panicked by the credit crisis, but hasn't scored any more than temporary rallies, Bloomberg reports in a look at the markets' fading faith in the Fed chief—and the Fed itself. "The Fed has been playing the equivalent of Whac-A-Mole,'' says a former Fed vice chairman. More »

Stocks steadied after steep early morning losses today, with the Dow actually rising 1.06 points by mid-morning, the Wall Street Journal reports. But financials were still down big, as the Bear Stearns fire sale loomed large over the market. Lehman Brothers, down 22%, was hit the worst, other than Bear itself, which nosedived 87%. Still, at $3.79, it remained stubbornly above its $2 buyout price. More »

Wall Street, reeling over JP Morgan’s bargain-basement purchase of Bear Stearns, is anxiously watching to see “who’s next” to succumb to the continuing credit squeeze, reports the Financial Times. As investment banks prepare to release first quarter results this week—led by Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers tomorrow—the mood is grim. “Short-sellers could have a field day with bank stocks this week,” said one banker. More »

The dollar took a pummeling and equity markets in Europe and Asia slumped as worried investors reacted to the Bear Stearns fire sale and the Fed's emergency rate cut. The dollar dropped to a shocking 95 yen, hit an all-time low of $1.59 against the euro, and remained below one Swiss franc. The US currency is "facing a credibility crisis," one Asian investor told Bloomberg, while another said that "the Fed is throwing the dollar out of the window." More »

JP Morgan has agreed tonight to buy Bear Stearns for a scant $2 a share, a bargain-basement price—stock closed at $30 a share—that demonstrates the urgency of staving off the collapse of the venerable investment bank and widespread panic in financial markets, the AP reports. The Bush administration and Federal Reserve have reportedly approved the all-stock sale, which was rushed today under federal oversight to avoid Stearns filing for bankruptcy, the New York Times reports. More »

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson vowed today to do “what it takes” to uphold a weak economy, the AP reports. “No one is debating the fact that this economy has slowed way down,” he said on the Sunday show circuit. "We feel it, we know it, the American people know it." He also backed the Federal Reserve move to fund Bear Stearns, calling it necessary to keep “disruption from spilling out into the real economy.” More »

With a recession and worsening meltdown on Wall Street looming, Fed chief Ben Bernanke has dumped textbook central bank economic policy, reports the New York Times. Last week's bailout of Bear Stearns, for example, seemed to fly in the face of his previous reluctance to rescue big institutions. And it came in the same week the Fed made $200 billion available to investment banks and another $100 billion for banks and thrifts. More »