Report: Barclays Offers to Finance iShares Purchase

NEW YORK--British bank Barclays PLC (BCS)is offering to bridging finance the purchase of its iShares fund unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources.

The bank, which is looking to boost its capital position and avoid government ownership, is offering to lend up to 80 percent of the unit's price, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The auction for the exchange-traded fund entity has narrowed to two or three bidding groups, among which a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman may have an edge, the newspaper reported.

Bain Capital and private equity firm TPG are also involved in the auction, according to the WSJ.

Barclays said earlier this month that it was considering a sale of iShares, part of its fund management arm, worth about $3 billion pounds ($4.3 billion), according to analysts' estimates.

Barclays could not immediately be reached for comment.


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Two Large Corporate Credit Unions Seized by Regulators

Federal regulators seized two of the nation’s largest corporate credit unions late Friday after discovering the institutions' losses on mortgage-related securities were greater than previously believed, the Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. Central Corporate Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union were taken into conservatorship by federal regulators. The two institutions, which provide services not to the general public, but to retail credit unions, have a total of $57 billion in assets, the paper reported.

Michael E. Fryzel, chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, said that the government’s swift action was necessary to ensure the stability of both the credit union system and the insurance fund responsible for backing up retail-credit union deposits, according to the Journal .

The two institutions, Fryzel said, weren’t accurately estimating their losses and put the system at risk. Fryzel said top management at both institutions would be replaced, the Journal reported.


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Ugly End to Week of Gains on Wall Street

Wall Street suffered another pullback on Friday from its recent hot streak but the Dow still eked out its first back-to-back weekly rally since May.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 122.42 points, or 1.65%, to 7278.38, the S&P 500 fell 15.50 points, or 1.98%, to 768.54 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 26.21points, or 1.77%, to 1457.27. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 10.20 points, or 1.74%, to 575.48.

Friday’s losses came as little surprise to market participants who have seen the Dow soar almost 1,000 points since plummeting to 12-year lows earlier this month. Taking advantage of the gains from this recent hot streak, some traders took profits while other said it was time to for the markets to take a breather.

“We’ve had a very good week and a very good run. So I think everybody expected a pullback,” NYSE trader Doreen Mogavero told FOX Business.

While banks likeJPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) led Friday's dive, the losses didn't appear to be sparked by any new negative economic or financial developments.

“It’s just been a protracted selloff. There is nothing really new,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. “It’s not bad that it’s pulling back like this. It had to make a stop sooner or later. As long as the pullback is not too deep, then I think you are positioned to continue the rally."

Bank of America and General Electric (GE) helped lead the way down on the Dow on Friday, offsetting gains for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and General Motors (GM).

“The big question is: Does this rally have any legs, technical or otherwise?” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business. “I’m not sure I’m a believer because I think politics continues to trump the economics. If we can get beyond the politics, perhaps the market has a shot.”

Friday's volatility may have been caused by the fact the day was considered a "quadruple witching" session, which is a phenomenon where stock options contracts, single stock futures, stock index options and stock index futures all expire on the same day. Options expirations often allow for “moves that are inconsistent with rational thoughts,” said Saluzzi.

There weren't any major economic or earnings reports for the markets to analyze but the stocks were clearly weighed down by a second-straight selloff in the financial sector, which sank almost 5%.

General Electric (GE)saw its shares tumble as a trio of analysts slashed their price targets and 2009 earnings forecasts for the conglomerate despite GE saying Thursday its embattled financing unit will turn a profit.

The commodity markets were once again in focus as gold held onto its $70-rally from Thursday by falling just $2.50 per ounce to settle at $955.80. Crude tumbled 55 cents, or 1.07%, to settle at $51.06 but still ended with its fifth straight weekly gain. Considered inflation hedges, the commodities have received a boost from those worried about the side effects of the Federal Reserve's decision to pump an additional $1.1 trillion into the money supply.

While the dollar rebounded Friday from its two-day plunge that was sparked by the Fed move, the greenback was still poised to take its biggest one-week plunge against a basket of rival currencies since 1985.

Corporate Movers

IBM’s (IBM) potential buyout of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) has been held up by extensive due-diligence but the process isn’t expected to prevent a takeover worth $6.5 billion to $8 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citigroup (C) said Gary Crittenden, previously the bank's chief financial officer, will take over the newly-created role of chairman of Citi Holdings. Citi said Edward "Ned" Kelly, previously head of global banking, will replace Crittenden as CFO.

Bank of America(BAC) was influential in determining writedowns for CDOs and leveraged loans at Merrill Lynch before BofA acquired the brokerage firm, the Financial Times reported.

Xerox (XRX) lost almost one-fifth of its market value after the company slashed its first-quarter earnings guidance below the Street's view and said it plans to cut an additional $300 million in spending.

Ford (F) ended sharply higher after UBS started coverage of the auto maker with a “buy” rating and a price target of $5. UBS predicted Ford will avoid seeking a bailout, making the risk/reward tradeoff compelling.

American Express (AXP) could post losses in 2009 and 2010 and is likely to cut its dividend to 5 cents from 18 cents in the second quarter, analysts at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey predicted in a research note.

Apollo Management is considering taking a large stake in Paul Allen-controlled Charter Communications (CHTR) in exchange for its control of the cable company’s debt, the Journal reported. Allen will hold onto voting control of Charter, which said last month it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Stiefel Laboratories, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, is considering selling itself for $3 billion to $4 billion and has already drawn interest from a number of big-name drug makers, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), the Journal reported.

Lennar (LEN) is nearing a deal to create a new company that would acquire at a discount much of the land from LandSource Communities Development LLC, which it sold its interest in for $707 million in cash in 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Global Markets

European stocks capped off their second straight week of gains with a solid rally Friday. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.68% to end at 3842.85 and Germany's DAX rallied 0.63% to 4068.74.

Asian markets ended in the red overnight as Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 2.26% to 12833.51 but Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 0.33% to 7945.96.


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Madoff to Stay in Jail Until Sentencing

NEW YORK--A U.S. appeals court on Friday denied Bernard Madoff's bid to be released from jail white he awaits sentencing for the biggest ever Wall Street investment fraud.

A three-judge panel said Madoff, who faces the possibility of life in prison for his crimes, could be considered a flight risk and should remain in custody pending his June 16 sentencing.

The court upheld the decision of a lower court judge, who last week ordered Madoff to jail immediately after the disgraced money manager pleaded guilty to a massive investment fraud that prosecutors say defrauded clients of as much as $65 billion over 20 years.

"In sum, the district court did not clearly err in its assessment that the defendant has failed to show by clear and convincing evidence that he is not likely to flee," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in a written ruling. "The order of the district court is affirmed."


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Reveling in 'A-Ha' Moments

Two days after Kristin Slye had emerged from a house fire that consumed most of her possessions, the reality of it backed up on her while driving in her car.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Slye said in our recent interview. “It finally sunk in. I remember screaming in my car, ‘I’m here. I came out of this burning house. I’m alive.’”

Slye’s epiphany took place in June of 2000 and it is now part of a beautifully executed advertising campaign for Mutual of Omaha called ‘aha moments.’ If you haven’t caught the commercials, you are missing something special. They are snippets of aha moments as told by the people who experienced them, bright spots on an ever darkening media landscape.

“When you have nothing, you have everything,” Slye says in her spot.

What happened to Slye in her car can be explained by a 2004 study at Northwestern University cited on ahamoment.com. Researchers discovered that “a split second before having an aha moment, we experience a burst of electrical brain activity ... kind of like a big light bulb going off in your brain.”

You might say it was a bit of a light bulb moment on the creative front when Todd Lieman and Jon Wank of Skadaddle Media -- working late one night after several months of kicking around ideas for their client -- stared at a crammed white board and decided to erase everything and write just this: Mutual of Omaha.

“And then I said, ‘what about aha, Omaha?’” Lieman said, emphasizing the rhyme.

The campaign grew from there, a natural for an advertising company that prides itself on its authenticity and transparency.

“It’s about life changes,” Lieman said. “What better way to convey an insurance company’s message?”

He loves that the spots are real people who responded to an ad on craigslist.org to talk about their personal epiphanies. Skadaddle pitched the idea to Mutual of Omaha on Valentine’s Day of 2008, notable because our economic downturn had only just begun, so the campaign seems almost prescient at its launch a year later.

By now many television viewers have seen the story of Ed, who lost his job but was spurred on to do what he’d really wanted to do -- become a personal trainer. In one compelling clip, a woman named Paige talks about following her gut and sending an appetizer of lemongrass beef to a guy at a restaurant bar; he’s now her husband.

And then, of course, there’s Kristin Slye and the fire in 2000. She describes two aha moments in her video. The first was the aforementioned incident. The second deserves a proper setup.

Slye, a hospitality marketing consultant (http://slyemarketing.com/), had grabbed an opportunity to live in what was the former house from MTV’s Real World (1994 season). She had six roommates, pretty much the norm in the ‘dotcom’ era when apartments were expensive and hard to come by. Six months into it, she was awakened at 3:20 a.m. by a fire. Slye wasn’t even wearing shoes, just pajama bottoms and a tank top. That was all she had left. With the help of good people in her life and her epiphany that she hadn’t lost what was important, she started rebuilding.

Then came a visit to Burning Man, the largest outdoor art festival in the world with a name that felt like a metaphor to Slye. When she got there, she found out they actually burn a wooden man as part of the festivities. At that point she didn’t even want to be around a lit candle, so she steered clear. But each year when she returned to the event, she inched closer and by 2004 Slye, a lifelong dancer, was close enough to see dancers with hula hoops of fire and flaming balls of fire attached to chains.

“I thought, don’t these people know that fire can destroy things?” Slye said. “I was both horrified and bewitched.”

Interestingly, the same Northwestern research team that had done the 2004 study about aha moments did another study in 2006 -- also cited on ahamoment.com -- and in it they found that “if we're open to change and maybe even looking for some kind of change -- an aha moment is more likely to happen.”

Tired of being afraid of fire, Slye was primed for change. So she trained to be a fire dancer and learned poi, the actual name of the dancing with chains she had seen. Her second aha moment came later while performing at a Burning Man ceremony.

“It was seeing people’s faces and their cheering,” Slye said. “Something that gave me so much pain, I realized people could get so much joy out of it.”

Slye, now married and the mother of a two-year-old, teaches and performs fire dancing. She and her family live simply – “Stuff makes me anxious” -- and, well, she lets her husband worry about the economy.

“We’re going to be fine,” Slye said. “All that really matters is we have each other. Fire has given me that gift. I’m really grateful that it happened.”

Skadaddle Media and Mutual of Omaha, it seems, have given us all a gift – stories that manage to resonate deeply in tiny sound bites while we’re watching Medium .

“It’s about a better life,” Lieman said. “That’s what we’re trying to inspire.”

Works for me.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.


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The President 'Gets It'... Why Doesn't Congress?

Missed tonight's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

Clearly, the President of the United States doesn't have to demand FOX Business Network.

Methinks he already gets it.

Here's the deal:

He breaks news on Jay Leno.

Apparently, first watching us on FOX Business.

Now I can't prove the Fox Business thing.

But no denying what I heard on the Jay Leno interview thing.

The President saying, almost exactly, what we've been saying about this whole bonus rage.

It's understandable. But it's misplaced.

They're slapping the sin. But failing to prevent the sin.

What I’ve been saying. What the big guy just said.

Have a look:

Mister President, you're right.

And you owe me no royalty fees.

After all, you're the President.

And what the heck, who'd believe me if I said...you, the most powerful man on the planet...just ran with a line from the angriest Italian anchor on the planet?

But enough about me.

Back to me.

And my point:

Treat the disease. Not the symptoms.

The President gets it.

Congress does not.

The President gets the rage.

Congress can't get over the rage.

The President wants to go after the abuses that lead to the rage.

Congress wants to just pile on the penalties and create more rage.

The President's Treasury Secretary missed this. Might have even endorsed this.

Congress missed this. At best, stupidly ignored this.

But listen to the President when he says quit debating this.

What's done is done. Stop fixing messes after they're done.

Start preventing messes before they're done.

It's sort of like, no doubt, the President's position on FOXBusiness Network, which he clearly watches.

If you don't get the cure.

Demand the cure.


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Market Winners & Losers: Dynegy, AIG

The markets ended the week on a down note on Friday, with the major indices landing solidly in the red.

Here are the day’s winners and losers:

Winners

Dynegy Inc. (DYN)
The utilities provider continued to inch away from its yearly lows, gaining 14.5% on Friday. The stock ended the week at $1.74 a share, a gain of 22 cents on the day.

American Capital Ltd. (ACAS)
American Capital bucked the sector trend, gaining 13.9%, or 14 cents, on Friday to close at $1.15.

General Motors Corp. (GM)
GM fought off some unkind words from UBS to end the week on a high note. Shares gained 10.8%, or 31 cents, to close at $3.18.

Ford Motor Co. (F)
Shares moved up 9.6% on Friday as UBS encouraged investors to stray from GM and buy Ford. The stock closed at $2.75, a gain of 24 cents on the day.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG)
Shares of ConAgra moved up 3.4% on Friday ahead of the company’s earnings release next week. The stock ended the week at $15.07, a gain of 49 cents on the day.

Losers

American International Group Inc. (AIG)
The joyride has finally come to an end for AIG, which saw its stock drop 22.2% on Friday after a string of positive days. Shares finished Friday at $1.26, a loss of 36 cents on the day.

Xerox Corp. (XRX)
A dismal earnings report and outlook cuts by two ratings agencies led the stock 18.7% lower on Friday. Shares closed at $4.34, a loss of $1.00 on the day.

ProLogis (PLD)
PLD followed sector trends as the stock closed down 16.3% to end the week. ProLogis last traded at $5.39, a loss of $1.05 on the day.

XL Capital Ltd. (XL)
Analysts had hyped the stock early in the week, but the wind beneath XL’s wings could not last until Friday. Shares closed at $4.24, a loss of 73 cents, or 14.7%.

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc (HST)
The stock started out the week in the positive, but ended in negative territory on Friday. Shares closed down 13.5% at $3.78, a loss of 59 cents on the day.


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