from Bloomberg News:
Ambac Financial Group Inc., the world’s second-biggest bond insurer, stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange in a “subpenny halt” after its share price fell as low as $1.04.
Ambac declined 3 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $1.15 in over- the-counter trading at 1:39 p.m. in New York. Ambac, which was stripped of [...]

As the financial sector melts down, one wonders which institutions are the safest: smaller local banks, money center banks, super regionals, credit unions. Credit unions are certainly something to think about becuase they offer high rates of deposit interest and low rates on loans.
I don’t know if credit unions are safer than banks across the [...]

You kind of saw this one coming.
Bloomberg News article here

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Wow! I’ve heard of multi-year lows, but a 53-year low. That’s painful.
Look, let’s not beat around the bush here. GM is in big trouble. They sell many products that people don’t want anymore (gas guzzlers), their growth engine is sputtering (GMAC) and they have enormous liabilities (retiree healthcare and pensions). [...]

You kind of saw this one coming. Bank of America is crazy to take Countrywide Financial’s balance sheet onto its books. Apparently, S&P Equity Research agrees and correctly downgraded BofA to a sell rating because of the risk.
Note: Oppenheimer’s Meredith Whitney expects BofA to eventually be forced to cut its divided. [...]

This via the FT blog FT Alphaville:
The latest downgrades from S&P – testament to the fact that the structured finance unwind isn’t yet unwound:
330 U.S. CDOs put on credit watch negative80 second lien RMBS cut to ‘D’65 Alt-A RMBS ratings cut 28 European synthetic CDOs on credit watch negative
It’s also worth noting that more [...]

In the wake of downgrades from AAA to AA status, MBIA has pulled support for its bond insurance subsidiary. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Jay Brown said:
“We confirmed to the market today that we will not be making capital contributions to MBIA Insurance Corporation given the changes in ratings status last week, especially [...]

From Bloomberg News in it’s entirety. This is a HUGE story. This means that Ambac and MBIA will go bust, no doubt. And there will be significant writedowns in Q2 and Q3. Expect to see a major financial institution fail (one that’s bigger than Bear) as a result of the writedowns [...]

This just in from the Globe & Mail via Reuters:
Standard & Poor’s in a sweeping move Monday that rocked markets cut ratings on a number of major U.S. securities firms including Lehman Brothers Inc. and said outlooks on the large U.S. financial institutions are now mostly “negative.”
Other major firms downgraded were Merrill Lynch & Co. [...]

Today, Fannie released horrible quarterly financial results. The company lost $2.2 billion and is now looking to shore up its capital base.
Fannie said an estimate of its fair value of net assets was $12.2bn at the end of the first quarter. This was 66 per cent lower than the value of $35.8bn assigned at [...]