[KevO]

anyone for a game of dominoes?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')all Street banking giant Merrill Lynch has unveiled a huge loss for 2007, crippled by exposure to risky investments in the US housing market.

It made a net loss of $7.8bn (£3.9bn) in the 12 months to the end of December from a net profit of $7.5bn in 2006.

The loss includes a massive $14.1bn write-down on failed investments related to sub-prime mortgages.

Merrill Lynch is the latest big bank to reveal losses related to the crisis in the US mortgage market.

Earlier this week, Citigroup and JP Morgan also announced write-downs because of their exposure to the crisis in the sub-prime loan sector, which focused on consumers with poor or non-existent credit histories.

JP Morgan Chase said its earnings for the last three months of 2007 fell 34%, while Citigroup reported a $9.83bn net loss for the last three months of 2007.

[JoeW]

maybe all the oil companies could now buy out the financial companies with the big-time profits they are about to report. that way, they will still have some kind of business left after the whole oil thing goes belly-up.

[TheDude]

Keep going:

Merril takes $16.7 Billion hit

[dorlomin]

Is this the current TSHTF-economy thread? If so....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/ja ... nvestments

British property company shuts doors to prevent a Northren Wreck type run.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne of Britain's biggest property funds was forced to shut its doors to withdrawals yesterday after the slump in commercial prices triggered panic selling by small investors.

The move prompted fears of a Northern Rock-style run on billions of pounds invested in once high-flying funds which many savers have seen as a safe haven for their pensions.

Scottish Equitable said yesterday that 129,000 small investors in its £2bn property fund will not be able to access their money for up to a year.

[dorlomin]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/665b9482-c52e ... fd2ac.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ears that the credit crunch might be entering a traumatic new phase grew on Thursday as investors lost confidence in the insurers that guarantee payments on billions of dollars in bonds.

Shares in Ambac Financial and MBIA, the world’s biggest bond insurers, fell 52 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively, as Moody’s Investors’ Service raised the possibility that both might lose the triple-A credit rating on which they depend.

sector was dealt another blow when Merrill Lynch said it was writing down $3.1bn in hedges with bond insurers, mostly with ACA Capital, a guarantor that has lost its investment-grade rating and needs to raise $1.7bn by on Friday to avoid insolvency.

[ohanian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne of Britain's biggest property funds was forced to shut its doors to withdrawals yesterday after the slump in commercial prices triggered panic selling by small investors.

The move prompted fears of a Northern Rock-style run on billions of pounds invested in once high-flying funds which many savers have seen as a safe haven for their pensions.

Scottish Equitable said yesterday that 129,000 small investors in its £2bn property fund will not be able to access their money for up to a year.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ohanian', '[')size=200]Thank God that this is not a bank run
Because Scottish Equitable is not a bank[/size]