The big news of the day while Fed Chair Powell was testifying before Congress about potential bank pain was the meltdown of New York Community Bancorp. The stock went down 40% and halted trading and it’s currently at $1.86, yes one hundred eight six pennies.
From CNBC:
Shares of struggling New York Community Bancorp. fell more than 40% on Wednesday amid reports that the regional bank is seeking a cash infusion.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the bank was looking to outside investors for cash to shore up its balance sheet. NYCB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The stock was halted for news pending when shares were down 42%.
source: CNBC.com
Curiously, we had CNBC on and the commentators were all adamant to tell us that this wasn’t a systemic risk. If we have government officials come on TV over the next few days that there isn’t any systemic risk then we think there probably is systemic risk. We don’t have any exposure to banks at the moment but if things get really ugly across the banking system it will impact other industries.
In any event, we are largely in T-bills and a few oil & gas stocks so hopefully, we’ll just need to sit and wait this mess out so stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…