FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

A spot of onomatopoeia to describe the action on Wall Street today.

Quick round up:

Dow at 7,552.29 down 444.99 (5.28%)

Nasdaq at 1,316.12 Down 70.30 (5.07%)
S&P 500 at 752.44 Down 54.14 (6.71%)

Those are new lows, More…

This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
Markit credit indices surged through their record wide levels today as pessimism enveloped global markets. The Markit iTraxx Europe index reached 193bp before recovering some ground this afternoon. More…

That’s the sound that US equities make when they rally massively because - against the odds - a rescue deal appears to be in the works for Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Per Bloomberg, emphasis FT Alphaville’s: More…

No, not from Sir Tom McKillip!

Here’s a sincere one:

But what of that technical bear market rally I was looking for back on 23 October? Has the awfulness of events given me a case of analyst amnesia? Unlike some others in the market we do not pretend we are always right, More…

The troubles courting the commodities trade to the East appear to be getting worse. The cheapest barrels of gasoline in the world are now those being sold into Singapore at some $37 per barrel, $6 less than those sold to the Med. More…

Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 15:39 on 20 Nov 2008. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Stacy-Marie Ishmael, FT (SMI)

NH:
Good morning (or afternoon, depending in which time zone you’re in)  More…

With quantitative easing under way, money supply is going to become an increasingly important gauge.

Morgan Stanley notes the measure will be a key indicator of when ‘QE’ actually starts to kick in. More…

The TARP: such stuff as dreams bank holding companies are made on.

GMAC Files Application With Federal Reserve to Become Bank Holding Company

Commences private exchange offers and cash tender offers for $38 billion of certain outstanding GMAC and ResCap debt securities to increase capital

NEW YORK, More…

If anyone was wondering what yield curves look like at 0 per cent interest rates, Dresdner has this in a note today.

Remember that usually yield curves flatten in bear markets and steepen in bull markets — Dresdner explains: More…

Because we love you so much, and also because we need to test out our new Version 2 site… again.

FT Alphaville’s New York correspondent Stacy-Marie Ishmael will be chatting with Neil Hume this afternoon. More…

On FT Alphaville this morning,

- Is everyone crazy about ‘Obama bonds’?

- Citi mo woe.

- Britain, the rule breaker.

- It’s official, no more talk of $200 oil by Goldman.

- iTraxx Europe scales record heights. More…

The cost of protecting European debt against default soared to an all-time high on Thursday, bursting through levels not seen since the panic wrought by the fall of Lehman Brothers.Just four single names More…

Not that it hasn’t done it before, but Britain looks like it may be in danger of breaking one of the Maastricht limits again.

Maastricht limits are part of the criteria for joining the euro. The UK of course has opted not to join — though with the pound trading at Great British Krona levels, More…

Brad Setser at the Council for Foreign Relations has deemed the crisis the biggest since the depression. Here’s why that statement could possibly be true.

For one, the US has finally admitted it is engaging in the process of ‘quantitative easing’. More…

Goldman’s latest commodities note is out, and this is all you need to know:

Closing our oil trading recommendations
Although we have emphasized in the past few weeks that continued weak oil demand exacerbated by constrained credit conditions will contribute to soften near-term fundamentals keeping WTI prices, More…

Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:06 on 20 Nov 2008. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Neil Hume (NH)   PM:Welcome to Markets Live    PM:This is FT Alphaville’s daily market chat  More…

The Markit iTraxx Europe index at 181.2bp - an all time high (earlier at 183bp).

Related links
CDS report: lurching towards armageddon - FT Alphaville

Yes, that’s 1 trillion, on top of, or taken from, the $700bn already contained in the Tarp.

FBR Capital Markets has written a 15-page note arguing that the US financial system needs at least that in tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the fractured credit markets. More…

Just across the wires:

20/11/2008 07:38:17 GraniteMaster IssPLC - Non-asset trigger event

Granite is Northern Rock’s master-issuer trust and as the below graph, reprised from a Deutsche note, shows, More…

Citigroup, perhaps unsurprisingly, is painting a not-so-pretty picture, of corporate earnings momentum.

For many companies that have experienced positive earnings momentum in the past six months, that momentum is now deteriorating (lower-right quadrant). More…

Elsewhere on Thursday,

- The ingenious Pirate Theory of credit crunch aversion.

- Some serious knock-on effects to contemplate for your next trading strategy.

- Forget about the stock market – at least until next year. More…

Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,

Opinion: How Obama can energise the economy
Glenn Hubbard, dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School and a former chairman of President George W Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers writes: More…

The latest on Thursday.

- IG Group reports rise in pre-tax profits, H1 doubtful debt charge of £15m - statement

- Corporate results: DMGT, Halfords, Hochschild, Mothercare, National Grid, Rolls Royce. More…

The Federal Reserve will make all efforts to ensure the US does not fall into a deflation trap, its vice-chairman said Wednesday, as US stocks plunged to their lowest level of the financial crisis. The comments by Don Kohn reinforced expectations that the Fed may cut rates again in December by as much as 50bp from their current 1%. More…

Citigroup came under heavy selling pressure on Wednesday as its shares plunged to a 13-year low amid fears over its ability to withstand expected writedowns on mortgage-backed assets. Citi led a widespread retreat in the financial sector as share prices fell for most banks and the cost of insuring their debt against default rose. More…

Lloyds TSB investors have overwhelmingly backed the bank’s controversial rescue of HBOS and its plans to raise £5.5bn of capital despite concerns expressed by a handful of shareholders. Several hundred investors gathered in Glasgow to hear Sir Victor Blank, More…

Alistair Darling, chancellor, will next week throw Britain’s struggling small and medium-sized companies a credit lifeline, in an admission that the £37bn bank bail-out has so far failed to boost lending to business. More…

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer ruled out an acquisition of Yahoo on Wednesday but said his company was interested in resuming talks on a web search partnership, reports Reuters. Yahoo shares fell 19% on the remarks, More…

Deutsche Bank is to shed 900 jobs as it moves to reshape its investment banking operations. The cuts are the biggest to be instituted by Germany’s largest bank and will fall mainly in New York and London, More…

Fidelity International is cutting several hundred jobs from its UK operations as deteriorating investment markets take their toll on the group’s revenues and profitability. The latest round of job cuts will be completed by the new year, More…