Another checkmate (guess who?)

As painful as it is to see Macro Man's friends at Lehman in personal financial distress, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the endgame is near. A record-volume slide into single digits and a current price that's 50% lower than Monday's opening suggests that checkmate is very, very near.

By all accounts, Lehman is considering releasing Q3 earnings after today's close to stop the speculation; the danger, of course, is that the release merely confirms the market's worst fears. Bear, Fannie, and Freddie provide recent evidence that a single-digit stock price is a death sentence; continuing with the chess theme, there doesn't appear to be a white knight on the horizon to swoop in to the rescue.
The obvious conclusion, barring a shocking development over the next ninety minutes, is that it's back to plan A for the equity bears and back to the drawing board for Team 1250. Strap yourselves in....this ride is about to get (even more) interesting.
Previous
Next Post »

32 comments

Click here for comments
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 8:10 PM ×

MM - Superb timing with your new comment (hey two per day, is this the best view into HF's that you're bailing and becoming a writer!?)

Anyway I'm long LEH at $8. I can't see that the mgt would hold out for a big price from KDB on a pipe dream - and if it is releasing the earnings now can't do much more harm!!

Mind you SPX is off almost 3% and Europe is going to plunge in the AM.

Looking forward to Tom Keane later this evening.

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 8:17 PM ×

Well, I am watching this market from my study precisely so I can manage my book (biggest risk being short European equity deltas) and thus ensure that I don't have to fall back on becoming a writer...

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 8:56 PM ×

For the dead pool looks like a near photo finish between F&F and LEH

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 8:59 PM ×

Much like the pool's result, actually (albeit with LEH sneaking under the wire, which F&F have done in reality.) Who knew my readers were so clairvoyant?

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:01 PM ×

Trading like they're about to be hit by a micro black hole thrown off from the Large Hadron Collider. Time for some scotch, methinks.

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:05 PM ×

Anon, don't steal my thunder, baby! That's what I plan to write about tomorrow.....the turn on of the LHC couldn't come at a more apt time for markets, eh?

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:11 PM ×

An internal strategist at UBS has said he believes that LEH is worth zero and the Fed will step in and make LEH debt whole but most likely wipeout preferred shareholders. So net net, LEH common and prefs go down the tubes. Any thoughts? I think LEH is toast.

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:17 PM ×

It leaves me wondering that if the Fed is going to guarantee everyone's debts, no matter how dumb they are, why I don't live in a bigger house and driver a faster car. I mean, if they'll guarantee LEH debt, why not mine. This is a very slippery slope, and I find it difficult to see it ending well. At some point, bondholders will need to get punished, though perhaps we'll have to scour the globe for a bond that Bill Gross doesn't own, since they seem to have passed an amendment that that guy isn't allowed to lose money.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:24 PM ×

MM you're not Mark Faber are you?

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:26 PM ×

No, not at all...until the beginning of this year I was actually quite cheery and upbeat, though Bill Gross on the TV has been an irritant for a number of years now.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:32 PM ×

We know that the pre- release of earnings from IBs often reflects an attempt to keep over night loan sources from drying up. We also know that deficiency of regulatory capital is rarely the cause of IB death; the cause of death is a lack of liquidity. Although the Fed will provide overnight loans, but if that source is all LEH's got, I suspect it will soon be game over. Today's price decline is likely to signal a liquidity death spiral. Will watch Europe and Asia markets with great interest.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:38 PM ×

What is the latest on the earnings release?

If LEH goes where does the black spot shift to? The next, next to go???

Could be worse, UAL thought they had a fleet of JU-87's yesterday.

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:49 PM ×

The obvious next IB target would be MER, though I suspect the next casualty would actually be someone more prosaic like Wachovia, who were headed for single-digit oblivion until the short selling restrictions appeared in July.

As an aside, I've noticed today that everyone I speak to at other shops is verrryyyyyyy reluctant to speak about their bank's relationship with LEH, though they are happy to observe the share price.

It feels like everyone is scared to piss off the FSA & SEC, and could result in an "emperor's new clothes" scenario where everyone's afraid to state the blindingly obvious.

It was amusing to observe that Deutsche put LEH on the buy list of something called their "Solar trading system", which prompted one of my NY contacts to ask which solar system the trader inhabits...

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 9:51 PM ×

Stukas? Rather low passenger capacity on those.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 10:27 PM ×

News feed suggests everyone is trading with LEH!!

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 10:41 PM ×

yes everybody is trading with them but nobody is buying the stock, LEH hitting new lows afters hours

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 10:42 PM ×

IMHO, we're approaching the dreaded 'pushing on a string' scenario.

Hypothetically, let's say that the Fed cuts rates this Sunday ahead of the FOMC meeting. I'd opine that such cut would signal that the Fed has lost control of the situation. And cause even more chaos.

On the other hand, Fed holds rates and fights the phantom menace of inflation while assets deflate.

What would Sarah Palin do? Does Australia give immigration waivers to Americans?

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 10:56 PM ×

i would just like the yen to perform its duty again during this episode.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 11:23 PM ×

Does Australia give immigration waivers to Americans?

Don't they have a points-based system like the Brits? P(getting a visa)=f(education, salary, language skills, age), or something like that.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 9, 2008 at 11:39 PM ×

LEH, all gets revealed 7:10am Wednesday 10th....

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 12:21 AM ×

Next playah dead....WM

Check CDS's for WM


AIG coming up quickly on deck....

AIG is a monster that gets little airplay....

Great blog...thanks for what you do.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 1:10 AM ×

I finally understood the Team 1250 reference-- the team that is repsonsible for the beginning or end or an era. Correct?

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 2:18 AM ×

MM,

I think we have to consider that LEH might be the example the Fed sets that proves they aren't going to bail out each and every bank that fails. I have a very strong suspicion that creditors are going to take a haircut this time.

And the obvious choice for who's next is either WM or WB. But certainly MER is the next B/D to be put under the microsope, albeit conditions there are very different.

NY

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 2:59 AM ×

Just pointing out that Bear collapsed at $31 (double digit), just opened the coming monday at $3.50 - IIRC

Reply
avatar
Unknown
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:06 AM ×

The blogosphere rumors/news circulating on this side of the pond is that KDB had a decent offer for LEH but Fuld would have to have given up control and balked. And KDB took their bat & ball and went home. When good companies go bad CEO ego-tripping, eh ?
WM was down about as badly over here and MER didn't do any too well either but somebody mentioned AIG and that story/rumor's been in play for a while (~ 4 weeks+ now).
On the prior thread somebody asked about Real Estate - notice the XHB keeps running up along with the XLF every time fantasies triumph over analysis with yet another bottom call. The most astute source of prescient analysis on US real estate has been CalculatedRisk who hasn't missed a call or turning point in the three years I've followed him. Suggest you mention to the guy next to to review his estimates of the outlook and bottoming process.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 4:07 AM ×

Bill Gross aka "bond king" has figured out that if you really want to outperform... you have to get big enough to hold the govt hostage... I still remember El Erian saying that he can get the EM debt issuers to structure bonds the way they want... otherwise they won't participate and the debt wouldn't have any support. Perhaps he's more of a "bond tyrant" than a king...

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:06 PM ×

Gross' Total Return Fund charges 3.75% front load to get in, 1% to get out, and .9% expense ratio. Given the disperson of returns in long-only fixed income returns is minutely small, I really ponder how one who gives money to these talking heads will come out ahead of the index. My Vanguard GNMA fund I bought in March is well ahead of PTTAX and I won't pay nearly 5% to get in and out. They were wrong on the Fed for 2 years, and they didn't get the housing bubble right (Paulson & Co did in our world), they merely pointed out what was obvious. The timing to the trade was what was key. I don't know who gives money to these muppets...

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:11 PM ×

Anon, I had retirement money with them (though in PTTDX, which had more standard fees), and pulled it in 2005 after watching them get the Fed horribly wrong from 2% to 4% or so.

The cynic might argue that they now rely on the hedge fund model of market impact and nonpublic information to generate returns, rather than good old-fashioned analysis.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:24 PM ×

I have no doubt that given the fee structure they are an asset gatherer, which I also suspect Mr Ackman is trying to do given that his plan is DOA and I'm sure he knows it. Moreover, given my dealings with "the authority on bonds" and my colleagues' as well, they definitely rely on market impact to add alpha to justify their fees. they are a "price to miss" client

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:29 PM ×

That doesn't surprise me in the least, as there are certain hedge funds, which you probably could name, that rely on running over their counterparties to generate a not insubstantial amount of return.

Reply
avatar
Anonymous
admin
September 10, 2008 at 3:53 PM ×

My fantasy (with zero hope of it actually happening) regarding the FNMA/FRE bailout was that Paulson would say "And the United States Treasury explicitly guarantees all FNMA and FRE debt issued from this day forward. No such guarantee exists for the currently outstanding debt." I would have loved to have seen the look on Bill Gross's face if THAT had happened.

Reply
avatar
Macro Man
admin
September 10, 2008 at 4:01 PM ×

Indeed...unfortunately, it was probably never gonna happen with Gross sitting at the table when they created the plan.

Reply
avatar