It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Cuts...Target cut its October same store sales growth guidance to 2-4% from 3-5%.

Wal Mart cut its capital expenditures to counter sluggish U.S. growth.

$14.7 to 15.4 billion in capital expenditures for its current fiscal year, and forecasts $13.5 to 15.2 billion for FY09-FY10.

Despite... UPS beat the number, CFO Scott Davis:

"UPS's balanced network around the globe produced solid results even in the face of a lackluster U.S. economy."

Burlington Northern beat the number and stated "concerns near-term about the economy, housing markets, high fuel prices and general consumer softness."

Beat it... American Express, Amazon, Apple, ATT, DuPont, JetBlue, Johnson Controls, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Royal Caribbean, Texas Instruments (issued Q4 warning.)

Missing... Schering-Plough. After the bell: Centex. Homebuilders gained yesterday on massive short covering.

Short out... Neumann Homes Inc. will file for bankruptcy, becoming the second-largest homebuilder to seek Chapter 11 protection.

The company lost more than $60 million over the last two years in Detroit alone, while home prices have dropped 10 to 25% in Chicago and Denver.

CEO Kenneth Neumann : "It's hard to feel bad because we're in the worst economic times of the housing industry we've ever seen by far."

It Ain't Over, Till Its' Over...

We've Nattered in the past about the possibility of ABCP debt liquidations and the resulting impact of further debt quality downgrades....

From Bloomberg... according to CreditSights Inc: Many structured-investment vehicles may be forced to close in the next few months...

as defaults by SIVs run by European hedge funds make it harder for others to avoid selling off their assets.

The sale of a ``significant portion'' of SIV assets is ``deeply problematic'' and would widen spreads in other pockets of the credit market.

Especially for bonds backed by real estate mortgages, debt issued by financial companies and collateralized debt obligations containing asset-backed securities.

CDOs are created by packaging securities such as bonds and loans and using their income to pay investors.

That in turn would force ratings companies such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service to cut rankings of top- rated securities, according to the report.

" the experience at the defaulted SIVs should, at the very least, remind investors, that the worst may not be over in terms of structured products ratings and the broader fall-out from the ABS sector."

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