Here's something you might be interested in.
Wall Street's JP Morgan agreed to buy ailing brokerage Bear Stearns for $2 a share Sunday. That comes to $236.2 million. Bear has a new building worth at least $1 billion. Assuming that building is part of the deal, JP Morgan is being paid big bucks to take over Bear, which was bailed out by the Federal Reserve on Friday. Bear stock sold for $159 in the last year. The Federal Reserve made the deal risk-free to JP Morgan by taking over up to $30 billion of Bear's smelly assets. Before the Asian market opened, The Fed dropped the discount rate from 3.50 to 3.25 percent. It is expected to drop the federal funds rate (a different rate) by a full percentage point Tuesday. U.S. stock futures are down 2 to 3 percent in Asian trading. JP Morgan bought Bear at a 99 percent discount from its book value on Feb. 29. This huge discount makes analysts wonder what assets of other U.S. companies, especially financial ones, are actually worth.
Wall Street's JP Morgan agreed to buy ailing brokerage Bear Stearns for $2 a share Sunday. That comes to $236.2 million. Bear has a new building worth at least $1 billion. Assuming that building is part of the deal, JP Morgan is being paid big bucks to take over Bear, which was bailed out by the Federal Reserve on Friday. Bear stock sold for $159 in the last year. The Federal Reserve made the deal risk-free to JP Morgan by taking over up to $30 billion of Bear's smelly assets. Before the Asian market opened, The Fed dropped the discount rate from 3.50 to 3.25 percent. It is expected to drop the federal funds rate (a different rate) by a full percentage point Tuesday. U.S. stock futures are down 2 to 3 percent in Asian trading. JP Morgan bought Bear at a 99 percent discount from its book value on Feb. 29. This huge discount makes analysts wonder what assets of other U.S. companies, especially financial ones, are actually worth.