Bloomberg story on MS friday , was big game tanker today .. Morgan Stanley Seen as Risky as Italian Banks in Swaps Market
bloomberg.com
Morgan Stanley (MS), which owns the world’s largest retail brokerage, is being priced in the credit- default swaps market as less creditworthy than most U.S., U.K. and French banks and as risky as Italy’s biggest lenders.
The cost of buying the swaps, or CDS, which offer protection against a default of New York-based Morgan Stanley’s debt for five years, surged to 488 basis points as of 4:20 p.m. in New York, or $488,000, for every $10 million of debt insured, from 305 basis points on Sept. 15, according to prices provided by London-based CMA. Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP) had CDS trading at 422 basis points, and UniCredit SpA (UCG) at 426, the data show. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percent.
“The CDS spreads are making investors and creditors nervous” about Morgan Stanley, said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York who rates the company’s stock “outperform,” in an e-mail.
cont'd
|
