Google prices offering of 5.3 mln shares at $389.75 - Yahoo! News

Google prices offering of 5.3 mln shares at $389.75 - Yahoo! News: "Google...said it would sell as many as 5.3 million shares to offset the impact of its inclusion in the widely held Standard & Poor's 500 Index.It will be the second follow-on offering Google has made since it went public in August 2004 at $85 per share. Google's share price has more than quadrupled since then, resulting in the

Shocks Seen in New Math for Pensions - New York Times

Shocks Seen in New Math for Pensions - New York Times: "The board that writes accounting rules for American business is proposing a new method of reporting pension obligations that is likely to show that many companies have a lot more debt than was obvious before.In some cases, particularly at old industrial companies like automakers, the newly disclosed obligations are likely to be so large that

U.S. exchanges still eye foreign expansion: analysts - MarketWatch

That US exchanges are looking to expand globally has been a story since I was in college, but given NASDAQ's 72% premium (and even then the deal fell apart), maybe they are getting serious now?From MarketWatch: U.S. exchanges still eye foreign expansion: analysts - MarketWatch: "U.S. exchanges are still interested in global expansion, including a potential acquisition of the London Stock

Does Investment Skill Decline Due to Cognitive Aging or Improve with Experience? by George Korniotis, Alok Kumar

Gee, another "why hadn't I thought of that?" one. (uh no comment!)SSRN-Does Investment Skill Decline Due to Cognitive Aging or Improve with Experience? by George Korniotis, Alok Kumar: "The economic costs of aging are considerable - older investors earn roughly 2% lower annual returns on a risk-adjusted basis. Collectively, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that older investors'

Share Repurchase, Executive Options and Wealth Changes to Stockholders and Bondholders by Sang-Gyung Jun, Mookwon Jung, Ralph Walkling

Ready for another cool paper on share repurchases? Here you go!SSRN-Share Repurchase, Executive Options and Wealth Changes to Stockholders and Bondholders by Sang-Gyung Jun, Mookwon Jung, Ralph WalklingShort version: This paper attempts to disentangle the signaling story ("we are buying back stock because we are undervalued") and the wealth transfer ("we are buying back stock because we can

The Influence of Audit Committee Financial Expertise on Earnings Quality: US Evidence by Bo Qin

SSRN-The Influence of Audit Committee Financial Expertise on Earnings Quality: US Evidence by Bo QinMore evidence that board make-up matters. In this peice, Qin finds that, having an "..accounting-literate professional as SEC initially proposed serving on the audit committee are more likely to have high quality of reported earnings than others without such an expert.Interestingly the final

Financial Rounds: Insider Trading By Lawmakers (via WSJ)

The Unknown Professor reports on the WSJ piece that has legislators actually including themselves in a new law that would strengthen insider trading laws! Financial Rounds: Insider Trading By Lawmakers (via WSJ): "Lawmakers are once again considering strengthening insider trading laws. However, in a twist, this time the laws wouldn't apply to corporate executives or securities brokers, but to the

FRB: Speech, Bies--Sound Capital and Risk Management--March 29, 2006

If you are in a Money and Banking class, this one should not be missed! Today's speech by Fed Governor Susan Schmidt Bies.FRB: Speech, Bies--Sound Capital and Risk Management--March 29, 2006A few look-ins:"...with the advent of very large banking organizations that engage in a wide variety of business activities--some of them quite complex--the Federal Reserve has become even more interested in

Bank Deal Starts Debate on Polish Role in United Europe - New York Times

Yet another international takeover blocked on political grounds. The NY Times suggests that this hints at an underlying uneasiness in the EU. Bank Deal Starts Debate on Polish Role in United Europe - New York Times: "The Polish government, alarmed at the idea of foreigners owning what would be Poland's largest bank, has blocked the deal, precipitating a bitter clash with the European Union and

Tim Hortons rises more than 20% in debut - MarketWatch

An update on the Tim Horton's IPOTim Hortons rises more than 20% in debut - MarketWatch:The IPO price was $23.16 but the first trade in teh secondary markets (NYSE) was much higher, again showing that you have to be in early to make money on IPOs. "After opening at $31.95, the stock fell in the open market, making it hard for retail investor to net a gain as it traded under $30 a share for most

Mimicking Repurchases by Massimo Massa, Zahid Rehman, Theo Vermaelen

SSRN-Mimicking Repurchases by Massimo Massa, Zahid Rehman, Theo VermaelenInteresting!Most examinations of stock buybacks find that the management is conveying information to the market about the relative valuation of the firm. Thus, buybacks are seen as good signals and the price tends to increase atthe time of the announcement and (at least according to some authors) continue to outperform in

Google enters the index / All eyes are on the Internet firm as it joins the S&P 500

Google enters the index / All eyes are on the Internet firm as it joins the S&P 500: "Google shares jumped 7 percent Friday in response to an announcement late Thursday that the Internet company will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 index, effective next Friday."This "Index effect" has been well studied. Some argue it is liquidity, while others suggest it is an information story (more

The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator

This is really cool. A listing of virtually every finance blog plus if you click through, you get the stories from that blog. For instance, FinanceProfessor is blog #29 (it's alphabetical). Click through and see what you get:The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator

What I am reading

Back in the day when I put out a regular newsletter, one of the favorite sections was always the "what I am reading" section. Since I have a few minutes, I will revive it.I am about 3/4's done with The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. The book is simultaneously looks at 1. what makes developing economies (now and in the past) tick, 2. Sach's personal experiences with economies and

J.P. Morgan Plans Massive Buyback

What great timing! Just yesterday we spoke of stock buybacks in our MBA 610 class. J.P. Morgan Plans Massive Buyback: "J.P. Morgan Chase said its board authorized the repurchase of up to $8 billion of the company's common stock."A few quotes (which happily enough fit exactly with what we discussed in class :) )"We believe the new stock repurchase program provides additional flexibility""J.P.

A look at derivative trading before Black and Scholes.

In a forthcoming Journal of Finance piece, Moore and Juh examine how options were priced 60 years BEFORE the Black-Scholes formula. They find that when markets were competitive, the pricing errors were about the same that we find today!Summary: Previous research on the efficiency of option pricing is mixed. This may be because of poor data (example monthly data) or actual mispricing.In this paper

Google introduces its finance page

You had to know it was coming, and today Google released its new finance page. At first glance, I like the graphing tool (will be great for class presentations), but still like Yahoo's finance page better since you can download historical prices. But check it out for yourself:Google FinanceHere is an article on Google's finance page from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tim Horton's Carveout

This is a text book quality example of an IPO. Not only is a well known company, it has altered its price range, offered its investment bankers a Green Shoe Option, but the parent Wendy's is only carving out a portion of the firm and then plans on spinning off the rest later.Globeandmail.com : Tim Hortons boosts IPO price: "Tim Hortons Inc. is boosting the price of its stock and granting its

FRB: Speech, Bernanke--Reflections on the Yield Curve and Monetary Policy--March 20, 2006

Interesting speech. Will make for great discussions in Institutions or Money and Banking classes!FRB: Speech, Bernanke--Reflections on the Yield Curve and Monetary Policy--March 20, 2006: "Current and near-term forward rates are particularly sensitive to monetary policy actions, which directly affect spot short-term interest rates and strongly influence market expectations of where spot rates

I'm back!

Hi everyone, I'm back. The service trip (with about 288 people to MS and Louisiana) went very well. Much good work got done, but wow is there a long long ways to go. The destruction, even after 6 months, is beyond belief.For more on our trip check out:1. Our main hurricane relief page2. Our blog--which used to be my randomtopics2 blog. At some point it will revert to it, but not yet.3. Our yahoo