Companies urged to rein in borrowing as credit crunch bites
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. is following Citigroup in buying back its retail clients’ auction rate securities.The firm said that, effective January 15, 2009, and through January 15, 2010, it will offer to buy at par auction rate securities sold by it to its retail clients. Its retail clients currently hold an estimated US$12 billion […]
DBRS downgrades long-term ratings of brokerage firm
Sells stake in Bloomberg
Inflation fears abate as recession risks loom larger
Affirms ratings on three other big Wall Street investment banks
Emerging markets drove the growth in the world’s population of high net worth investors (HNWs) last year, according to the latest research from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.It found that the number of HNWIs (defined as individuals with net assets of at least US$1 million, excluding their primary residence and consumables) in the world increased 6% […]
Merrill Lynch’s monthly Survey of Fund Managers found investors have taken their most negative stance towards equities in a decade, with 27% underweight the asset class in June.“Investors’ fears of stagflation have crystallized as they face up to the possibility that interest rates might have to rise as the global economy slows,” it notes. As […]
Merrill Lynch Global Research has introduced a new index with exposure to equity volatility, the Merrill Lynch U.S. Forward Equity Variance Rolling Index, which measures the performance of a long S&P 500 volatility strategy designed to be both tradable and efficient.The firm says that with the tendency of volatility to strengthen when equity markets weaken, […]
Evidence points to possible sell off in bonds as inflation worries mount