The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street"
column, just up, is asking whether Bank of America Corp., which has been
widely speculated to be in talks to bid for Lehman, might be holding
out for something bigger, namely Merrill Lynch. The column writes,
"After all, in this crisis, [Ken Lewis] can probably only step in once
to buy an investment bank on the cheap."
Geeze, where do you start with this? Merrill's CEO John Thain has
mitigated some of the bank's exposure to the mortgage mess, but he
still has issues. Still, this is a stretch. Does BofA really think
Thain will fail? How long
will that take? And if Merrill gets to the point where it has to put
itself
up for sale, what would be left of the Thundering Herd? Does BofA's
Lewis think Thain will get frustrated and just sell the joint to him?
Maybe this is BofA's excuse to avoid Lehman. If Lewis is really
entertaining this notion, then he might as well be assembling his
strategy from a Ouija Board. In fact, this smells of, well, rumor,
disinformation or negotiating tactic. But that's the kind of day this
is. - Matthew Wurtzel
Troubled Wall Street
Prices at 2 9m EDT |
| Name |
Price at
Thurs. close |
Price
at 2 pm |
Change |
Mkt cap |
| J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. |
41.65 |
41.78 |
0.13 |
143599.51 |
| Lehman Brothers Inc. |
4.22 |
3.57 |
-0.65 |
2478.18 |
| Merrill Lynch & Co. |
19.43 |
17.61 |
-1.82 |
26925.31 |
| Goldman Sachs Group Inc. |
157.03 |
157.63 |
0.60 |
62075.46 |
| Morgan Stanley |
38.71 |
38.36 |
-0.35 |
42541.77 |
| Citigroup Inc. |
18.61 |
18.35 |
-0.26 |
99922.97 |
| Fannie Mae |
0.77 |
0.70 |
-0.08 |
752.72 |
| Freddie Mac |
0.59 |
0.46 |
-0.13 |
295.36 |
| Bank of America Corp. |
33.06 |
33.72 |
0.66 |
153767.01 |
| Wachovia Corp. |
14.28 |
14.46 |
0.18 |
31217.04 |
| Washington Mutual Inc. |
2.83 |
2.96 |
0.13 |
5047.86 |
| Wells Fargo & Co. |
33.85 |
34.46 |
0.61 |
114026.81 |
|
Source: The Deal
|
Like a river overflowing its banks, the rumors surrounding Lehman
Brothers Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. continue to surge back and
forth. Now getting caught up in the deluge: Merrill Lynch & Co. 
