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The Indian market has now become a luring bet for the foreign VC firms, who are in the queue seeking clearance from the regulators. Around 66 foreign venture capital investors, like Google holdings, GE Capital Mauritus III, Argonaut Capital and Bessemer India Capital II are put on hold to prevent them from investing in the market at a very low price. I am not sure about the rationale behind this, investors are coming to India mainly because of low price and perceived stability compared to other Asian countries.

More cash inflow is good for any country especially in the current economic crisis. FIIs withdrew huge sum from Indian stock market in the recent months, hence we had lot of dollar outflow in the recent past. Just let the dollar inflow coming in, it will stop the falling rupee value.

Related Link: Moola Mania

Holy Dow, Green Monday, Moola Mania… Whatever you call it, this is a big relief for U.S. stock market. What a ride we had in the last 10 days!

Dow Jones climbed 936 point to offer much needed relief to the investors. U.S. stock market paper gains totaled $1.2 trillion Monday according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index. The massive rebound also pushed the Nasdaq composite index higher by 195 points, or nearly 12 percent, its second-biggest gain in percentage terms. The Standard and Poor’s 500, rose 104 points, its biggest point gain ever and an 11.5 percent gain, its greatest since 1933.

There are still many unknowns in the world economy. I guess the worst is over, at least for this year. We may not see the blood path again in Wall Street for many months to come. America is still in recession. Unemployment numbers may go up. Suddenly the world is not changed. Only the perspective of the investors is changed. That is the good thing anyway because last week’s fear was just nasty.

U.S. Stocks were falling last week because of a combination of panic and forced selling by hedge funds that must meet margin calls from their lenders. The reversal of stock market direction brings tremendous joy and relief.

“I think in years to come — I wouldn’t say months to come — we will perceive this as being a great value-buying opportunity,” said David P. Stowell, a finance professor at Northwestern and a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase. “Two and three years from now, it will seem very smart.”

Whenever Jim Cramer shouts “Boo-yeah” in the TV show, I laugh or change the channel depends on my mood. It appears that Jason Schwarz is really angry at Jim Cramer. He calls for Jim Cramer to be suspended. What did Cramer do?

Last week, he asked all investors to sellout. After seeing today’s rally, Jim Cramer may regret his comments last week. No one knows whether today’s rally is sucker’s rally or a real one. I don’t know whether Jim Cramer should be suspended. It would be nice if he can tone down his drama in the television show. Sometimes, it feels like a Jamaican reality show.

It’s getting worse every day. Washington Mutual failed today. FDIC seized the assets of Washington Mutual and sold the banking assets to JP Morgan for $1.9 billion.

U.S. Congress is still debating whether to approve the bailout. Many banks are eagerly waiting for the free money. American President Bush warned the country about recession in his prime time television address to the nation. Even if warnings of economic catastrophe aren’t enough to win approval of a controversial $700 billion Wall Street bailout, the economy is not at risk of falling into a depression, most experts think so.

Many experts think that the current situation is not as bad as the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their savings in Great Depression when banks closed without any insurance for its customers’ deposits.

Fortunately, FDIC insures all bank deposits in America, up to $100,000 per account. So, the Americans won’t lose the savings even if the banks go belly up. But, the entire economy is going to suffer for many months to come.

If the battered credit markets fail to restart, either because the bailout fails to win Congress approval or it doesn’t work as planned, U.S. could be facing its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression

Americans are angry that their taxpayer’s money is used to bail out the greedy and stupid banks. Some Americans want the government to help their failing businesses if the government is kind enough to help out the banks. Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, said that as soon as Congress returns to work from its upcoming recess, his trade group will be asking for another package of between $40 billion and $90 billion directed towards the housing market.

Ok. How about the common man that lost his life time savings in the housing crisis or the people that lost jobs because of bad bets placed by senior management in banks?

Ironically, all the senior executives that directed and authorized the bad investments are still rich. Merrill Lynch CEO is expected to take home $9 million because of merger with Bank of America. Lehman Brothers’ CEO is not going to live in a hut either. Washington Mutual’s ex-CEO Kerry Killinger that directed sub-prime mortgages is also worth millions of dollars.

Related Links:

Great Depression
U.S. on road to depression?
WaMu becomes biggest bank to fail in US history
Where are the grown ups?
What the Wall Street Titans Earned

I guess that finally SEBI realized the dangers of brokers recommending stocks. Stock broking companies should not be allowed to offer “tips”. Their job is just to execute the orders from the clients. They should not handhold the clients. It’s a basic common sense, but most of the brokers in India just ignored that. It’s pretty easy for the brokers to “front-run” meaning that brokers can buy certain stocks in advance and then issue the “tips” to innocent customers to buy the same stocks. Brokers will sell their stocks for a quick profit in a day or two.

SEBI finally put a ban on these so called “tips”. More on this in Yahoo.

…there is an opportunity. Bear Stearns is screwed up, it’s in total chaos. It’s a nice opportunity for JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan agreed to buy Bear Stearns low interest rate payday loan,low interest payday loan,interest loan low paydayapproval guaranteed loan payday,guaranteed loan payday,fax guaranteed loan no paydayonline payday cash loanfaxless loan online paydayamerica cash loan paydayez payday loanadvance cash fax no paydaylow fee payday loanpayday loan,cheap loan payday,faxless loan paydayfast online payday loanonline payday loan applicationcanada in loan paydayinternet loan payday,business internet loan payday start,internet payday loanquick cash payday loanfax free loan paydayno fax required payday loancash loan payday quickpayday loan paycheck advanceloan till paydayno fax payday cash advancepayday loan no faxing requiredguaranteed no fax payday loan,fax loan no payday,absolutely no fax payday loan1 hour payday loanconsolidate payday loan debt66 funding loan payday routefax guaranteed loan no paydaycash advance until paydayloan military overseas payday,loan military payday,military payday loanadvance cash loan loan paydayadvance cash loan payday,advance cash cash loan loan payday quick,payday payday loan cash advance loanquick payday advance loancalgary loan payday,calgary payday loan2 loan online paydayconsolidation debt loan paydayadvance loan payday quicklow interest payday loaninstant approval payday loan,approval instant loan paydaypayday loan applicationday loan payday same,day loan no payday same teletrackpayday loan 1000,1000 loan payday,payday loan 1000 dollarcheck advance payday loan,bad credit payday advance loan,payday advance loanno fax payday advance loanfee loan low paydayfree payday loanborrower dollar loan payday ten,dollar loan payday tencompletely instant loan online payday,instant online payday loanadvance america payday loancash loan payday untillawsuit cash advance,advance cash lawsuit loan,lawsuit settlement cash advancejeu flash roulette for just $2 per share!!

It’s a fire sale. Bear Stearns was closed at $30 on last friday. I remember the heady times and hefty bonuses in Bear Stearns not too long ago. It’s really amazing (and shocking) to see how times change.

Related Link: JPMorgan to Buy Bear for $2 a Share | Special Coverage in Wall Street Journal

I followed the news of Renaissance hedge fund for many years. I am always fascinated with the level of the success they achieved even in bear markets. According to VC Circle, Renaissance is coming to India. Overall, I think this is good news for Indian market.

The New York based fund has received the approval from the capital market regulator SEBI. The entry of Renaissance comes after SEBI invited global hedge funds to directly come to India rather than using participatory notes to invest in Indian capital markets. Following this move, SEBI has registered around 200 foreign institutional investors in the last two months, and out of them at least 20 are large hedge funds.

Renaissance’s $6-billion Medallion fund is believed to have returned more than 50 per cent in the first three quarters of 2007!

Hyderabad-based infrastructure development company Ramky Infrastructure Ltd has filed the draft red herring prospectus with the market regulator SEBI for an IPO to raise about Rs 400 crore. This is one year after Ramky received Rs 125 crore funding from IL&FS Investment Managers and UAE-based Sabre-Abraaj Private Equity Fund I. In January 2007, Sabre-Abraaj put in Rs 75 crore, while IIML invested Rs 50 crore in Ramky Infrastructure.

All Indian infrastructure projects are hot. Ramky infra will ride the heat wave. I am sure this IPO also will be over-subscribed. Get in, if you can.

Another IPO from MCX is also most expected. If you are investing in Indian markets, watch these two IPOs. You will be glad you did.

I wrote about Goldman few days ago. Goldman is set to report earnings today. As I write this, Dow Jones industrial futures rose 102, Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 12.90 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 15.50 in anticipation of better news from Goldman.

Yesterday, the U.S. market went down because it didn’t really believe that Fed’s auction was going to help the market. Today, that is going to be changed by a single company – Goldman Sachs. People want some kind of comfort about real estate situation in U.S. Goldman is going to give them just that. When it comes to trading, it all boils down to the psychology of the traders.

I hope that Goldman will bring the Santa Claus to the market!

Sub-prime mortgage mess is taking its toll not only in U.S. but also in many other countries. People that were supposedly smart failed miserably and lost billions of dollars. Even banks in France bet and lost on subprime mortgages in U.S.

It looks like only one company played this game smart. Goldman Sachs is set to reap a windfall as a result of bets made by its mortgage department that securities backed by high-risk home loans would plunge in value.  The well-timed move is expected to generate nearly $4 billion of profit for the year ended November 30th.

Some people point that Goldman’s big profits raise ethical questions, because it continued to underwrite collateralized debt obligations (CDO) with subprime exposure and sell them to customers, despite its own traders betting CDO values would fall!  Wall Street is a dog-eat-dog world. I don’t think anyone there even care about ethics, including the people that complain about Goldman!