TV Ad rates to 15 year low in UK

Not really surprising, but interesting on the FT. TV Ad rates are now back to 1992 levels. We know advertising is a cyclical business, and no surprise is turning downward so quickly in such challenging (to say the least) economic environment. Also, the FT says that 35% of companies cut ad budgets for the 4th quarter running. Advertising revenues in TV fell 17% YoY in September, but the actual fall in prices is more...

What next?

You cannot rule out a big one-day market crash like the 25% fall in 1987. With all that the central banks and the governments are doing, markets are in free fall, down 20%+ in the week, and everybody is panicking. It just takes very little to break the whole system into a one day big-meltdown. If that happens, buy something that day might not be a too bad idea.

S&P starts with an 8

839.80 S&P touched 839 today, time to cash in the second pizza. Time to go long the market? I doubt… It’s better and safer to let the dust clear, even if this means potentially missing a 20% or plus upside. The situation is so dire, that you don’t really know what’s next. Also, from an economic standpoint, the worst is still to come. We might see lower levels in the months to come. 750...

Bank of America 10bn$ capital raise

How on earth a bank that spends 50bn$ to buy Merrill Lynch would after a month need to raise 10bn$ at a discount of some 20/30% versus market price, diluting existing shareholders, in a market that is extremely tight on cash? It seems to me that some people might not have understood how serious the situation is, if they think they can go shopping and later easily present the bill to shareholders.

S&P below 1,000

Just a quick update on the bet I made with a friend of mine I hinted to a few blogs ago. I was giving the S&P 12 months to touch 1,000 (at the time I made the bet, the S&P was trading around 1,300), and it just touched it yesterday, closing at 996. I’ll collect my pizza when my friend comes back from the red sea. He works in finance, but every time there is something interesting going on, he is missing...