If you think the mortgage and financial meltdown will kill all rumor in the financial sector, think again. Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) shares are trading up today and even the stock options are active on the Friday Rumor Mill that the troubled brokerage firm could be for sale or have an expanded stake from China's CITIC.
Today is also options expiration date, so we looked further out the expiration calendar beyond February. Options are active in March from the $85 to $105 strike prices on call options. April is actually quiet. Specifically these March $85 call options. The July $75 and $100 strike prices each saw over 1,000 contracts trade.
What is interesting is that there is another report here that noted that Bear Stearns and CITIC may modify their terms. This may or may not be the case. Most sovereign funds so far are having to stick to original terms. It wasn't that long ago that they were criticized for taking large stakes in critical US companies. These funds may just have to take their deals as is if they want to keep buying up properties.
Bear Stearns has been the perpetual merger rumor target in the rumor mill for literally over 10-years now that I am aware of personally. When I was a bond broker in the early and mid-1990's, that was a typical "FRIDAY RUMOR" and then since switching to the equity side of the equation after the mid-1990's this "FRIDAY RUMOR" persisted one and off numerous times each and every years since then. Even Warren Buffett has been noted as a rumored buyer before. It appears that even the CDO and mortgage meltdown doesn't kill some rumors.
Who knows for sure.... Some time you might expect the merger to actually happen.
Bear Stearns stock is up today while many competing investment banks are not so lucky. Shares were up over 5% in afternoon trading to over $83.00 on nearly double average volume. It appears that a recent pullback is being attributed to David Faber reporting on CNBC that these rumors are not likely true.
Jon Ogg is an editor and partner of 247WallSt.com.
Bear Stearns rumors just too hard to believe...
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