Thursday, August 14, 2008

S&P removes ABK and MBIA from credit watch

They were put on with negative implications. Now that's been removed.

Third Avenue's Martin Whitman also added to his positions:

But he said in effective "run-off," it seems likely that the companies will generate large amounts of cash and large amounts of favorable tax attributes, even assuming a reasonable worst-case basis in which claims prove to be two or three times larger than what they have allocated for reserves....

"One of the most favorable characteristics of insurance companies, such as Ambac and MBIA, is the relative ease of exit from present activities, combined with the ability to employ resources elsewhere," said Whitman.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1439504820080814?rpc=44

You knew the bears were getting squeezed on these numbers if you watched the action in PMI Group (PMI 4.17) today. It sold it's Australian assets for $920 million.
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2008/08/11/daily59.html?ana=yfcpc

The stock was up nicely on the day and was trading at $4.5 and twice in the last hour, they had indiscriminate selling taking the stock to $4. That to me was a short defending their position. It won't work. This news tonight on the monolines will make all these numbers pop, and pop nicely tomorrow.

Yesterday, I gave you the heads up on SunTrust Banks, when the shorts played games with that, by buying 10,000 puts at a dime, while they tried getting a selling cascade on STI. That story was in the last couple of paragraphs in the post below from yesterday.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2008/08/t-boone-gets-picked-off.html

They failed, as STI closed up a couple bucks today. Watch PMI, MBI and ABK all trade nicely tomorrow.

The shorts tried to press them down; instead the longs pressed back.

Now we get good press from a value investor, and help from the rating agencies!

Nothing nicer than a desperate short to give you some free money!

And while I'm ranting, what happened to the banks today? Why did they rally? Wasn't this not supposed to happen when the SEC abandoned the short sale rule?

Is it because the buyers are real and not reel?
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-buying-vs-reel-selling.html

As advertised!!!!
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2008/08/monolines-rally.html

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