Wall St banks face $10bn cost – Aline van Duyn and Francesco Guerrera – Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS, the banks most exposed to Ambac and MBIA, could face further writedowns of up to $10bn after the bond insurers last week lost their fight to retain their triple A credit ratings. – FT.com 

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A cold market for jumbo loans shows signs of a thaw – LA Times

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Nearly One-Third of Credit-Card Owners Hold High Balances – Dennis Jacobe – Six in 10 credit-card owners pay off their credit cards monthly – Gallup.com 

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CME Group raises margin requirement  — Bloomberg News – CME Group Inc. increased the margin requirement for investors in corn and soybeans after prices soared and raised the limits on price swings of the two commodities and wheat. – Chicago Tribune

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Thornburg Mortgage falls to $3.31 billion 1st-quarter loss, sees more delinquencies this year – AP Yahoo

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ResCap Issues $5.68 Billion of Notes as Part of Debt Exchange – Emma Moody – Bloomberg 

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KeyCorp Will Raise $1.5 Billion in Capital, Cut Quarterly Dividend by 50% -  Linda Shen – KeyCorp, Ohio’s third-largest bank, said today it expected raise $1.5 billion in capital after losing a tax case tied to leasing. – Bloomberg 
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Wachovia, WaMu still in big trouble -  Michael Brush – Think we’ve seen the worst of the credit crisis? Not so fast: America’s mortgage problems won’t be over anytime soon, analysts say, and that means more bad news for these big lenders. – MSN Money 

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1.  Raising rates would be crazy, forecaster says – Shepherdson says once-in-a-lifetime downturn has a long way to go – Rex Nutting – MarketWatch

2.  US RATE FUTURES-75 bps Fed hike seen by year-end – Reuters 

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What’s Next For Lehman – Liz Moyer – Forbes 

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For this broker, foreclosures spell boom  – Tami Luhby – David McIlvaine has the right specialty in a housing crisis: He sells homes that banks have taken back from borrowers who can’t pay their mortgages. – Money CNN

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FASB Issues Exposure Draft to Amend SFAS 133 for Simplifying Application of Hedge Accounting – Ernst & Young LLP – securitization.net 
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OCC: Banks Tighten Underwriting in Most Lending Categories – Amy McAlister -  Underwriting standards tightened dramatically through the end of March 2008 at national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Thursday. An annual survey of… – housingwire

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How “Safe” Is BofA’s Dividend?  – Given the company’s recent spate of deals and deteriorating earnings outlook, not very -  … Will Bank of America cut its common dividend, now yielding a hefty 8.87%?  ..- Gary Townsend – bankstocks.com 

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April HPI Data Now Available – The Most Current HPI Data Available Anywhere – thanks Bob Visini – LoanPerformance 

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from IRA ARTMAN – thanks Ira

Personal Bankruptcy for Dummies (Paperback) – Amazon 

Personal Bankruptcy Laws For Dummies – Amazon 

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Fitch Says US Subprime-Related Rating Impact on European Banks Will Be Minimal in the Future – Julia Peach – riskcenter.com
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Fitch Reports a Disappointing Spring For the US Housing Market – Robert Curran – riskcenter.com 

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Lampert Buys KB Home, Centex Stakes – … Lampert’s ESL Investments Inc. hedge fund purchased 747,500 shares of Centex, the fourth-largest builder, according to a May 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares are valued at $10.4 million at yesterday’s closing price. The fund also acquired 605,000 shares of KB Home as of March 31, the fifth-largest, valued at $10.8 million. … -  emii.com 

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READ THIS has details – MacroMarkets Targets Housing  – Matthew Hougan  – … the product we’ve all been waiting for … a house price ETF. MacroMarkets has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the right to launch Up and Down Macros tied to the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 10 Home Price Index. .. – IndexUniverse

posted by Bill Coppedge