Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Financials & Mortgages Banks Sell more than 10 worth of bad mortgages $XLF $JPM $WFC

Financials
· Mortgages - Mortgage Delinquencies Fall For 1st Time Since '06 per TransUnion (DJ)
· European banks – EU countries may be forced to levy a fee on their banks to raise capital to help pay for future financial bailouts; the plan could be unveiled on Wed – FT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/79ac67c4-676f-11df-a932-00144feab49a.html
· Europe’s banks hit by higher loan costs – European banks are being hit w/higher funding costs vs. their peers in the US and Asia; contributions into LIBOR from European banks is much higher than other regions – the headline 3-month LIBOR stands at 0.5%; however, WestLB submitted a quote at 0.565% (BoA was 0.48%). WSJ http://online.wsj.com/articl /SB10001424052748704792104575264883867618368.html?mod
=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories
· Spanish banks – some Spanish savings banks to merge - Cajastur, Caja de Extremadura and
Caja Cantabria, and Caja de Ahorros de Mediterraneo, on Mon said they agreed to merge
some of their operations; pressure is picking up on the group after Cajasur had to be bailed
out by the government over the weekend; The government has given the banks a June 30
deadline to merge and consolidate. (Reuters)

· Greek banks - big week of earnings - NBG (National Bank Greece) 5/26; EFG Eurobank
5/27; Alpha Bank 5/27; Piraeus Bank 5/28
· Banks seek to sell ~$10B worth of bad mortgages - Lenders have sought bids on about $10
billion of troubled mortgages in recent months, more than in all of 2008 and 2009 –
Bloomberg
· Mortgage insurers (MTG, RDN, PMI) – positive comments in WSJ; notes that capital is
starting to return to the industry due to improving fundamentals and signs of an upturn in
housing (WSJ)
· Nomura is accelerating the expansion of its brokerage sales force in the US – DJ
· Gulf oil spill – a group of insurers led by Lloyds of London has asked a judge to rule on
whether ~$700MM worth of exposure sold to RIG should cover BP’s clean-up costs; the
insurer argues that the pollution clause is only for spills occurring above land or water; since
the spill is occurring at the well, the insurers argue it is the sole responsibility of BP (BP is
self-insured) – WSJ/DJ
· Manhattan rental market – at least 3 Manhattan landlords have stopped paying broker
fees, meaning higher costs for renters; latest sign of tighter apt market – WSJ
· KFN – Cramer reits pos. view on the stock – calls it his speculative pick of ’10 (recall he
was pos. on the name on Fri too) – CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37317010?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS
· XL – the co is seeing heavy put buying – thestreet.com
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10765615/1/xl-capital-draws-heavy-putbuying.
html?puc=_tscrss
· PNC – the stock was upgraded at Keefe Bruyette

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