Word: banke
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...year average of 4.4% holiday sales growth and would mark the most sluggish season since 2002, when sales rose only 1.3%. Scott Krugman, NRF spokesman and vice president, says the dismal forecast should surprise no one. "It is surprising that we had a year's worth of bank consolidations on Wall Street in a week, but low consumer confidence isn't," Krugman says. "This was a slow downward progression throughout the year as far as retailers were concerned...
...Treasury's willingness to eat up toxic mortgage-backed assets stuck on bank balance sheets could help temporarily improve those banks' standing, but there's no certainty it will adequately ease the flow of lending in a market permeated by fear of further failures. In fact, the Federal Reserve's move Tuesday to take an active role in the commercial paper market for short-term loans was a tacit acknowledgement that the bailout bill will not on its own stem the bleeding...
...unheard of 1000 basis points, even after the bailout bill was signed into law. That means the market price for insurance against a $10 million Morgan Stanley default hit $1 million per year, more than 10 times the typical ceiling cost for such insurance in a normally functioning bank sector. "The bailout is a step forward, but it's not at all clear that it's going to work," says Darrell Duffie, professor of finance at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business...
...Elsewhere, French bank BNP-Paribas said it was taking control of the Belgian and Luxembourg assets of finance and insurance group Fortis, less than a week after it was partially nationalized as part of a $16.4 billion rescue plan. The Dutch government had moved on Friday to nationalize fully the group's Dutch assets, including the bank ABN-Amro. As a consequence of its estimated $21 billion move for Fortis, BNP will be the largest commercial bank in Belgium - and the Belgian government becomes BNP's biggest shareholder...
...However, bearish traders should consider the alternatives. Despite budget-deficit restrictions and other rules applied to government members of the euro zone - and their often petulant submission to the European Central Bank 's currency and monetary policies - there is precious little to build on toward a harmonization of the E.U.'s finance sector. Regulation of banks and credit groups is still handled on the national level, and even national banks of euro-zone countries still have some decision-making power. Given that disunity, governments have little option beyond national action to stave off company meltdowns and any broader temptation...