BOE, ECB, Unilever, Cisco, SCA, MBIA, Warburg Pincus, Higher Rates, Deutsche Bank

Lie to me some more... BOE 2nd cut in 90 days, lowered 25 bps to 5.25%;

ECB held at 4%; head Jean Claude "Tricky" Trichet: remained concerned about a potential wage price spiral as workers demand compensation for higher prices...

Yet, reversed course and signaled he's open to cutting interest rates for the first time in five years as economic growth falters. The Euro suffered vs the Dollar.

Softer and Slower... Unilever, the world's #2 maker of consumer products, said net income fell 64% in Q4.

CEO Patrick Cescau said the U.S. market is "softening" and European growth will slow. Unilever is cutting 20,000 jobs over the next 4 years.

Careful Cisco... the #1 maker of computer networking equipment, CEO John Chambers disappointed with lowered forward guidance for the 2nd straight quarter.

Sales in both the U.S. and Europe grew less in January than predicted, customers are "cautious" as the US softens and Europe slows and the "sales slump may last months".

The first cut is not the deepest... Last month Fitch downgraded BK guarantor SCA. Today, Moody's cut SCA's rating six levels from AAA to A3.

Bleeding from a knive gash... MBIA, the world's biggest bond insurer,

plans to sell $750 million of stock in an effort to bolster capital and retain its AAA credit rating.

MBIA said the private equity firm Warburg Pincus (already gashed for $1.5 billion on MBIA) will make up any shortfall in the sale by buying convertible participating stock.

Rate cuts raise bond rates... Treasuries tumbled after the government's $9 billion auction of 30-year bonds at the lowest yields ever chased away investors.

The longest-maturity U.S. debt fell the most since 2004 as bondholders concluded that yields were too low.

Indirect bidders, the class of investors that includes foreign central banks, bought only 10.7%.

A weaker dollar coupled with lower yields drives down demand for long term bonds (5, 10 or 30 year).

Investors are less willing to lock in at low rates for the long term.

As the fed cuts, foreigners trapped in dollar hegemony will support the dollar first, witness the dollar rally over the last two days.

Fed cuts raise mortgage rates... The Fed has cut 125 basis points in the last 10 days, benefitting only their banking friends...

as the 30 year fixed rate home loan is currently 5.47%, up more than 20 basis points from January's two year low of 5.25%.

The cost of a 15 year fixed mortgage stands at nearly 4.95%, up more than 15 basis points from January's two-year low of 4.79%.

Your just too good to be true... Deutsche Bank, Germany's #1 bank,

posted a smaller than estimated decline (net income -48%) in Q4 profit on increased revenues +2%.

Deutsche Bank had total markdowns of 2.3 billion euros in 2007, but reported no net writedowns from debt holdings in Q4.

Yeah, read it again, NO NET WRITEDOWNS and upheld forward guidance despite a reduction in fixed income debt market revenues.

Deutsche stock has been pummeled 36% in the last 9 months. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kian Abouhossein:

"Even with improving market conditions, profit guidance is unrealistic."

The Nattering One muses... NO WRITEDOWN? Very unrealistic and probably too good to be true.

Much like Wells Fargo, WaMU and Wachovia 10Q's... can't wait for the actual filing by Deutsche Bank, rest assured there will be surprises for the stockholders.

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