Goldman Sneezed

Reuters reports that Goldman analysts came out with a 'barrage of downbeat research notes' Thursday, and 'almost single-handedly pushed US blue chips to a whisker of a bear market'. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 358 points, its steepest decline for almost a month, and closing at its lowest level (11,453.42) since September 2006. June is shaping up to put in its worst performance as a month for US stocks since 1930.

Over in Europe, equity markets fell to their lowest levels in more than two years, and Asian stock also dropped, sending the region's benchmark index to its worst first-half performance since 1992.

In the meantime, The Financial Times reports that Merrill Lynch looks set to appoint a CEO, or President, for its European business, in a move set to emulate Goldman Sachs (no surprise there, Mr Thain).

Bloomberg reports that Mizuho Financial Group CEO Terunobu Maeda told shareholders at the bank's annual meeting this week that management failures were not to blame for the $6bn subprime lending-related writedowns his bank have posted. Maeda said that 'we couldn't foresee a total crash in the market'.

Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley is to turn up the heat on its under-performing asset management unit. The unit has posted two straight quarterly pre-tax losses totalling $338m. The news agency quotes Morgan Stanley co-President James Gorman, who said: 'We're going to turn the Bunsen burner up several degrees'.

The Wall Street Journal quotes SocGen rogue trader Jerome Kerviel telling psychologist Pierre Bouchard: 'During four months, there were tons of alerts that came from my desk, and therefore from me, indicating problems. There were e-mails sent to my bosses from controllers indicating fake transactions. To my mind, the fact that no one came to talk to me about it somewhat justified my position'.

Finally, the newspaper also reports that UBS has been sued by Massachusetts authorities which claim that the bank told investors that auction-rate securities 'were safe, liquid cash alternatives when UBS knew they were not'. Massachusetts regulator William Galvin said in a statement that 'the game was fixed; only customers were in the dark'.

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