Specialized Finance

Dick Grasso was on CNBC this morning, and said that the markets should have never gone to penny spreads, it should have been put at 5 cents between the quotes. Grasso said the way to get rid of naked shorts is buying them in after three days. Since there is no uptick rule, piling on and rumor...

Sara Lee Corp (NYSE: SLE) dipped 5.55% to $16.35 in the pre-market session. Sara Lee reported a decline in its Q4 profit. American International Group Inc (NYSE: AIG) moved down 4.07% to $21.24 in the pre-market session. AIG shares have dipped 41.49% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500...

CME Group (NYSE: CME) reached a record high in single-day volume with 25,734,651 contracts traded across all asset classes on Tuesday, August 9, surpassing the previous record of 25,282,704 contracts on May 6, 2010. Additionally, record volumes were reached in gold futures and options with 504,368...

Compass Point upgraded its rating on CIT (NYSE: CIT) from Neutral to Buy. At the same time, the rating agency left its price target on the company's stock unchanged at $46. On Wednesday, CIT closed the day at $31.22.

Compass Point has upgraded CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) from Neutral to Buy and maintains its $46 price target.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy spoke with FOX Business Network's (FBN) Liz Claman about the S&P downgrade of the US credit rating. Duffy said today is “not a record day” in terms of trade volume and that, “I think we should be rated at triple-A plus... I...

Shares of KKR Financial Holdings (NYSE: KFN) are lower on the session by 8.51%, currently trading at $8.00. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past three months and is currently trading below the 50-day moving average. Options traders are buying calls on the name today. A short while...

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) today announced the launch of 21 new OTC North American emissions contracts. All of the new forward contracts will be available for the trade date of Monday, August 29, 2011, and options will be available Monday, September 19, 2011.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that Nelson J. Chai (46) will become the Company's President effective immediately. He previously served as the Company's Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Strategy. As President, Chai will maintain his current...

NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) today announced trading volumes for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for July 20111. Global derivatives average daily volume of 8.0 million contracts in July 2011 increased 12.6% versus the prior year driven by a 33.7% increase in U.S. options ADV...

Shares of Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR) are lower on the session by 5.03%, trading at $13.98. Overall put volume is now running at 14.04x the daily average, with 78% of all puts traded being purchases on the offer. 17,593 contracts have traded on the session so far. Interactive...

Despite an early pop in all major U.S. Indexes on the heels of a better-than-expected jobs report, the market has given up its early gains and has sunk, once again, deep into negative territory. The S&P 500 (SPX), which had traded as high as 1218.11, is currently down 12.82 points (1.1%) to 1...

According to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Asta Funding (NASDAQ: ASFI) reported fiscal 3Q11 EPS ROCK: [$0.23, $0.23, NM, $0.18]. KBW said that operating earnings were higher than our estimate primarily due to lower operating expenses than we had forecasted. “Raising EPS estimates.” Asta Funding...

Deutsche Börse AG (XETRA: DB1) and NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) confirm that the European Commission has today initiated a Phase II review of their proposed business combination. The European Commission's decision to open an in-depth investigation was fully anticipated and does not in any way prejudge...

Shares of KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) are lower on the session by 3.15%, trading at $9.21. Overall put volume is now running at 7.79x the daily average, with 92% of all puts traded being purchases on the offer. 3,055 contracts have traded on the session so far. KKR Financial Holdings LLC is a...