FOLLOWING WAMU COLLAPSE, WACHOVIA UNDER THE GUN
The cost of insuring the credit instruments at Wachovia (WB) got just a little pricier in the wake of the collapse of rival Washington Mutual and the governmentâs failure to reach an agreement on a bailout of the financial services business. How much pricier? Put it this way - what Wachovia paid $670,000 for yesterday costs nearly $3 million today. Or about three and a half times more. The cost of protecting $10 million of Wachovia credit soared to 24.5 percentage points upfront, plus 500 basis points per year, from about $670,000 a year on Thursday. Wachoviaâs recovery has been hamstrung by the bankâs troubled mortgage portfolio, which included some $122 billion of adjustable rate mortgages that are considered among the least-liquid securities in the credit markets. Shares have slumped as much as 15% in Fridayâs trading amid widespread worries that Wachovia could find itself among the ranks of banks considered susceptible to failure.
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2008/09/26/credit-insurance-soars-at-wachovia/
The cost of insuring the credit instruments at Wachovia (WB) got just a little pricier in the wake of the collapse of rival Washington Mutual and the governmentâs failure to reach an agreement on a bailout of the financial services business. How much pricier? Put it this way - what Wachovia paid $670,000 for yesterday costs nearly $3 million today. Or about three and a half times more. The cost of protecting $10 million of Wachovia credit soared to 24.5 percentage points upfront, plus 500 basis points per year, from about $670,000 a year on Thursday. Wachoviaâs recovery has been hamstrung by the bankâs troubled mortgage portfolio, which included some $122 billion of adjustable rate mortgages that are considered among the least-liquid securities in the credit markets. Shares have slumped as much as 15% in Fridayâs trading amid widespread worries that Wachovia could find itself among the ranks of banks considered susceptible to failure.
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2008/09/26/credit-insurance-soars-at-wachovia/
