Specialized Finance

Moody's (NYSE: MCO) came out this morning and said that the AAA rating on U.K. debt could be at risk if the government can not cut its debt enough. As such, the British pound instantly weakened against the dollar and the yen, but the bigger issue here is whether the U.K. would actually default on...

Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) today announced that they have recommended to the Board of Directors of the holding company of the merged group, Alpha Beta Netherlands Holding, to pay a one-time special dividend of €2.00 per Holdco share from Holdco's capital reserves shortly after...

Life Partners Holdings (NASDAQ: LPHI) announced today that it has received an amended Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission. As previously disclosed, on May 9, 2011, the Company received a “Wells Notice” from the SEC stating that the Staff will recommend that the SEC bring a...

Piper Jaffray is maintaining its estimates on shares of Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO) and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP). “Based on the strength in May issuance, we see a positive bias to estimate revisions going into the 2Q reporting period,” Piper Jaffray writes. “However, given a more...

Life Partners Holdings (Nasdaq: LPHI) announced today that on June 1, 2011, the Company received a letter from the staff of the NASDAQ advising that because the company has not yet filed its Form 10-K for the period ended February 28, 2011, the Company does not meet the criteria of Listing Rule...

Moody's (NYSE: MCO) said all the political posturing in Washington could lead to the rating agency downgrading U.S. debt if no progress is made on increasing the debt limit. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating some accounting firms over their audits of Chinese companies....

According to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, NewStar Financial (NASDAQ: NEWS) is upgraded to Outperform. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said that it is upgrading NewStar shares to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as the shares currently offer potential upside of 35% relative to our price...

Shares of PHH Corporation (NYSE: PHH) are lower on the session by 0.41%, trading at $20.88. Overall put volume is now running at 1223x the daily average, with 86% of all puts traded being purchases on the offer. 1,223 contracts have traded on the session so far. PHH Corporation is a outsource...

The NASDAQ Stock Market (Nasdaq: NDAQ) announced that trading was halted today in Jiangbo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: JGBO) at 14:04:38 p.m., Eastern Time, for "additional information requested" from the company at a last price of $3.08. Trading will remain halted until Jiangbo Pharmaceuticals...

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading provider of financing to small business and middle market companies, today announced, in connection with its offer to certain eligible noteholders to exchange any and all of the outstanding Series A Notes listed in the table below (the “Series A Notes”) for...

Benchmark has raised the price target on Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) from $43 to $45 and maintains its Buy rating.

Goldman Sachs has changed the price targets on the following companies: Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX) from $4.50 to $5, Sell Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) from $30 to $29, Neutral Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) from $69 to $72, Buy CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) from $345 to $325, Neutral...

Thank goodness it's Friday and thank goodness we're heading into a long weekend. Moreover, it's probably good news there's just one trading day left in May after today because the “sell in May” crowd has certainly asserted itself this month. Stocks got off to a rocky start this week as Europe's...

Shares of CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) are up more than 2% today, after getting a positive mention at the Ira Sohn Conference on Wednesday. Jeff Aronson of Centerbridge Partners said he thinks shares could eventually fetch $65 in a buyout, or if the company were to acquire a retail bank, such as...

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating and a $29 price target on shares of NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ). In a note to clients, Goldman writes, "We have a Buy rating on NDAQ. NDAQ possesses the least leverage to transaction driven revenue but its businesses are competitive and it is forced to be more...