The Wall Street Report: The Monday (Big) Blues

The Markets today took a breather. As the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJIA) fell 41.74 points (-0.52%) to 7975.85. The Nasdaq (.IXIC) fell also -15.16 (-0.93%) to 1606.71.

Stocks In Focus For Tuesday

SAN FRANCISCO -- Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Tuesday's session are Alcoa Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Mosaic Co.

Alcoa (AA: 7.91, -0.19, -2.35%) is expected to report a first-quarter loss of 58 cents a share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY: 26.37, -1.25, -4.53%) is forecast to post earnings of 44 cents a share in the fourth quarter, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet Research.

Mosaic (MOS: 44.87, -0.65, -1.43%) is estimated to report a profit of 25 cents a share in the fiscal third quarter, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet Research.

After Monday's closing bell, Immucor Inc. (BLUD: 24.06, -0.48, -1.96%) said its fiscal third-quarter profit was virtually flat, up to $19.5 million, or 27 cents a share, from $19.3 million, or 27 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $75.3 million from $67 million last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimated a quarterly profit of 22 cents a share on revenue of $73.1 million. The medical diagnostics company expects earnings of 97 cents to $1.02 for 2009 on revenue of $292 million to $300 million. Analysts estimate 99 cents on revenue of $295.5 million.

Watch list

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT: 31.27, -0.8801, -2.74%) and Navistar International Corp. (NAV: 31.8899, 1.1899, 3.88%) said they signed a definitive truck agreement that was first proposed in June. Under the agreement, the companies will produce Caterpillar heavy-duty vocational trucks for the North American market and will form a 50-50 joint venture to pursue the global commercial truck market outside of North America. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG: 17.13, 0.05, 0.29%) said it plans to sell $1 billion in senior notes to help pay down debt. The offering is made up of $500 million in 5.875% senior notes due April 15, 2014, and $500 million in 7% senior notes due April 15, 2019. ConAgra expects to close the offering on April 14.

Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG: 17.11, 0.56, 3.38%) said that Keith Wandell will become its new president and chief executive officer, effective May 1. Wandell, 59, will succeed James Ziemer, who is retiring. Wandell is currently president and chief operating officer of Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI: 15.09, -0.47, -3.02%)

Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA: 6.58, -1.91, -22.5%) is standing by its leadership team following a breakdown in talks with International Business Machines (IBM: 101.52, -0.7, -0.68%) to buy the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. After the deal collapsed over the weekend, speculation arose concerning the future of Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief executive. "As a policy Sun does not comment on rumors or speculation. What we can say is that Sun is committed to its leadership team, growth strategy and building value for its shareholders -- with continued alignment of resources to best position the company for improved financial performance," the company said, according to the Journal.

Ventas Inc. (VTR: 25.41, -0.56, -2.16%) expects to see adjusted 2009 funds from operations of $2.55 to $2.65 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimate funds from operations of $2.60 a share. The health-care real estate investment trust also plans to sell 8.5 million shares of common stock and $200 million in senior notes due in 2016 to help pay down debt. Ventas has about 143.4 million shares outstanding. Separately, Ventas said it plans to buy back up to $310 million in senior notes due between 2010 and 2015.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/transportation/stocks-focus-tuesday-1873720267/

Merkin Charged With Fraud for Steering Money Into Madoff's Scheme

Financier J. Ezra Merkin was charged Monday with fraud by the New York Attorney General’s Office for his role in steering billions of dollars of investors’ funds into Bernard L. Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.

Merkin, according to a statement issued by the Attorney General’s office, “ignored irregularities and other glaring red flags related to Madoff’s investments.”

The 54-page complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court states that Merkin collected $470 million in management and incentive fees in return for funneling $2.4 billion to Madoff.

Merkin’s money management company, Gabriel Capital, which oversaw several funds including Ascot Fund Limited, Gabriel Capital L.P. and Ariel Fund, is also charged in the suit. In the wake of the Madoff scandal, Merkin in January stepped down from his position as chairman of GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors (GM: 2.2599, 0.1199, 5.6%).

It’s the second fraud suit filed against so-called third party feeder funds that invested their clients’ money with Madoff.

Massachusetts’ top securities regulator filed suit last week against Fairfield Greenwich Group, a Connecticut-based firm that invested $7 billion with Madoff while collecting hundreds of millions in fees.
The New York suit seeks unspecified damages and repayment of all fees paid to Merkin by Madoff.

The complaint says Merkin did not tell his clients that their money was going to Madoff yet represented himself as an “investing guru.” Merkin was instead a “master marketer” who used his connections as a well-known Wall Street financier to convince investors over a period of nearly 20 years to turn their money over to him.

“Merkin profited enormously from Madoff’s scheme, reaping huge commissions while investors lost all their money,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in the statement. “Merkin duped individual investors, nonprofits and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history’s largest Ponzi scheme.”

Merkin is an influential figure, especially in New York, where he was prominent both on Wall Street and in social and charitable circles. While he and Madoff were still riding high, Merkin sat on the boards of such New York institutions as Carnegie Hall, Yeshiva University and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.

The complaint alleges that two of Merkin’s “most trusted colleagues” repeatedly warned Merkin that Madoff’s returns were too good to be true.
In addition, the complaint says Merkin used “fraudulent quarterly reports, investor presentation materials and offering documents” to conceal Madoff’s role and embellished his own role.

Merkin's attorney, Andrew J. Levander, issued a statement saying Merkin will "vigorously" defend himself against "this hasty and ill-conceived lawsuit."
Levander said Merkin has been fully cooperating with Cuomo's investigation into Madoff's operations, and that, contrary to the allegations in Cuomo's complaint, Merkin's investors knew their money was going to Madoff.

"Mr. Merkin performed extensive due diligence on Madoff and his trading strategy, and in addition arranged meetings with Madoff for many investors to perform their own due diligence. Unfortunately, Mr. Merkin's due diligence, just like the detailed investigations performed by countless others, including regulators, was thwarted by the intricate, fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Madoff," Levander said.

Michael Shapiro, an attorney with Carter Ledyard & Milburn who represents several of Madoff victims, said New York securities laws require don’t require the Attorney General to prove that Merkin knew that Madoff was operating a fraud.

Cuomo needs to prove only that Merkin’s marketing materials included “material misstatements.”
“They don’t have to prove any intent to defraud or deceive,” said Shapiro.

Shapiro, a former prosecutor, said it was “inevitable” that financial advisors who, knowingly or not, turned a blind eye to Madoff’s unorthodox operations while collecting tens of millions of dollars in fees “would be held to account.”

Merkin is already facing civil suits filed by investors, including New York University, who claim Merkin hid from them the fact that he was turning their money over to Madoff.

Source: FoxBusiness


Sun Shares Plummet After IBM Talks Collapse


NEW YORK--Shares of Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA: 6.49, -2, -23.56%)tumbled 24% on Monday after the company rejected rival computer and software maker International Business Machines Corp' (IBM: 100.64, -1.58, -1.55%) $7 billion offer.

Sun shares fell to $6.44 in pre-market trading after Sun pulled the plug on the deal which might have spelled the end of an era for a networking company that was once synonymous with the Internet.

The buyout was seen as a means for survival for the once-storied Silicon Valley company, which has been losing market share.

Sun was unhappy with IBM's offer of $9.40 per share or below, and it was unclear if talks would resume, according to a source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The bid represented a premium of up to 89% on Sun's shares before deal talks were first reported last month.

Sun shares had risen to $8.49 on Friday, from $4.97 on March 17, a day before talks between the two technology companies were first reported. The Wall Street Journal had previously said IBM's original bid was $10 to $11 a share.

The deal may have helped IBM bolster its offering of computer servers, storage equipment and software as competition heats up with rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ: 33.34, -0.82, -2.4%).

Sun rose to prominence selling high-end computer servers in the 1990s but never fully recovered from the dot-com bubble burst earlier this decade. Analysts also say it failed to fully capitalize on its software assets including Solaris and Java.

Failed talks with IBM could mean that Sun will need to find another buyer, and contend with a lower offer. But no bidder other than IBM has emerged in the months that Sun has been shopping itself.

The Wall Street Report: Unemployment Grows

Crunching the Numbers

Dow's four-week win streak continues as it surpassed the 8000-point mark for the first time since late November of 2008 !

The Dow [.IDU] rosed in good fashion at +39.51 points (+0.50%) to 8017.59; as the Nasdaq [.IXIC] had the BEST WEEK EVER, with +19.24 (+1.20%) at 1621.87 !!!


Stocks closed out a week that began with a wicked selloff and turned to a historic move higher on a fairly quiet note.

The major averages ended positive, following tumult that saw a major accounting change and the indexes posting gains not seen in more than 70 years.

Bank stocks pared their losses after spending the morning lower, a day after critical changes to accounting rules known as mark-to-market lifted the entire market. Internet companies helped lead a late-afternoon bounce that saw the Nasdaq tech barometer close with a more than 1 percent gain and the Standard & Poor's 500 break the 840 technical barrier.

Sobering news on employment and a lower reading in business activity had sent stocks negative earlier, but volume was anemic through the day and the averages moved little after noon. Data showed the economy shed 663,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate climbed to 8.5 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted post its biggest four-week gain in 75 years as analysts are talking about an end to the bear market.

"Short- to intermediate-term I'd have to say I'm probably positive," said Matthew Tuttle, president of Tuttle Wealth Management in Stamford, Conn. "The numbers are ugly but everyone expected them to be ugly--they're not uglier than we thought they were going to be. At least in the short to intermediate term we probably have seen a low."

Some pullback from the week's high was expected Friday as profit-takers recovered some of the massive losses the market has seen in the past 18 months.

"I think the rally got a little ahead of itself here," Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS, told CNBC. "There are certain aspects about this that still say, 'bear market rally.' It was heavily led by the most-shorted stocks."

Technology showed the most strength as the broader market struggled.

Elsewhere in government, Congress has approved President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget that includes massive spending increases in health care, education and energy.

In other markets, copper futures rose above $2 a pound for the first time since November as fund managers began moving back into the metal. At the same time, Treasury prices continued to fall as risk appetite gained, sending the 10-year note a full point lower.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers beating losers 2 to 1 as 1.48 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dow (.IDU) is up +3.10% for the week, and still down -8.65% for the year. The Nasdaq (.IXIC) is up +4.96% for the week, and also up +2.84% for the year. Which means, the markets were posted dramatically not seen in more than 70 years !



Peter Madoff Is In Court Today !!!
By AARON LUCCHETTI

MINEOLA, N.Y. – Peter Madoff under a new stipulation on an asset freeze can spend up to $10,000 per month for living expenses, including mortgage loans and insurance premiums.
The judge in the case Friday accepted the new stipulation, according to a court official.
Lawyers for Peter Madoff and a law student who wanted to extend a freeze on Mr. Madoff's assets had presented an agreement to Judge Stephen Bucaria in a suburban New York court Friday morning.

But the judge initially declined to accept it, saying it needed to be changed in both form and substance.

Judge Bucaria had said he was concerned about the extent of his jurisdiction, especially given that U.S. prosecutors were also handling many of the same issues in the federal investigation of the Madoff case, in which Peter Madoff's brother, Bernard Madoff, has pleaded guilty to perpetrating a massive Ponzi scheme.

"The agreement has serious omissions," the judge said earlier.

The hearing followed a decision by Judge Bucaria from a week ago to temporarily freeze the assets of Peter Madoff. The lawsuit was brought by a Brooklyn Law School student who claims he lost nearly $500,000 in the case. The issue at Friday's hearing was about imposing a more-permanent freeze as the law student pursues recovery.

The lawsuit alleges that Peter Madoff served as sole trustee between 2003 and 2008 for a trust established for Andrew Ross Samuels in 1997 by his grandfather, Martin J. Joel Jr., and breached his fiduciary duty to the trust.

Peter Madoff, as chief rules-compliance officer of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, "had full knowledge that it was a fraudulent Ponzi-scheme and nothing more than an unprecedented fraud," the lawsuit said. Peter Madoff hasn't been accused of wrongdoing in the alleged fraud.

A lawyer for him has said his client didn't know about the fraud.

Peter Madoff took the stand, and took an oath to accept the stipulation. He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and brown striped tie.

For more on the Bernard Madoff "Scam of the Century", please visit the Special Section of The Wall Street Journal .

Job Losses Grow, But More See Signs The Worse Is Over


When it comes to job losses in this recession, March may end up being the cruelest month.
“It almost can’t get any worse,” says economist David Jones of DMJ Advisors.
Friday's jobs report showed that a wide range of employers eliminated a total of 663,000 jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest since late 1983.

The Wall Street Report: Inside The G20 Summit

Stocks to Watch:

GOOG, RIMM, INTC, CSCO, GE

The Dow [.INDJ] rosed +216.48 (+2.79%) to 7978.08; and the Nasdaq [.IXIC] continued its climb to the top at +51.03 (+3.29%) at 1602.63 to almost erase all of its losses for the year !


G-20 Agrees to Regulatory Crackdown, Bolsters IMF Resources

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders agreed on a regulatory blueprint for reining in the excesses that fed the worst financial crisis in six decades and pledged more than $1 trillion in emergency aid to cushion the economic fallout.

The Group of 20 policy makers, meeting in London, called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit- rating companies and risk-taking by banks. They also boosted the resources of the International Monetary Fund and offered cash to revive trade to help governments weather the economic and social turmoil. They sidestepped the question of whether to deliver more fiscal stimulus in their own economies.

The G-20 commitments amount to a transatlantic compromise and an effort to rewrite the rules of capitalism to address an integrated world economy that has outgrown the ability of individual governments to keep it in check. The leaders met as mounting unemployment demands a response even as stocks rose amid signs the global economy may be stabilizing.

“Global problems require global solutions,” U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters after hosting the talks. “Our prosperity is indivisible.”

• Dow industrials atop 8,000

Galvin Charges Madoff 'Feeder Firm' Fairfield Greenwich with Fraud

Massachusetts regulators today civilly charged Bernard Madoff “feeder firm” Fairfield Greenwich Group with fraud for assuring clients that it thoroughly monitored the now-disgraced financier’s work.

“Investment advisers have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients under law, (but) the allegations against Fairfield . . . outline a total disregard for such responsibility,” Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said in filing a complaint on behalf of Massachusetts investors.

Galvin said Fairfield marketing materials claimed the firm closely tracked $7 billion of client money put into what turned out to be Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Read more here .

The Fairfield Greenwich Group site: https://www.fggus.com/

The Wall Street Report: The G20 Summit

Towards the end of 2008 Leaders of the G-20 Countries meet in Washington. See the Declaration and action plan from the Washington Summit (PDF 72KB) . This meeting remitted follow up work to Finance Ministers. In addition to their November meeting in order to take forward this work in advance of the Leaders summit in London on 2nd April Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will also meet in March 2009. A deputies meeting will be held in February 2009 to prepare for the Ministers meeting.

Media releases archive-Date-Document-Type / Size

2006, Nov 15
2006 G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
HTML

Media Release, Reserve Bank of Australia

2006, Nov 8
The G-20 Addressing Global Challenges
HTML
Speech by Dr Martin Parkinson, Executive Director, Australian Treasury

2006, Oct 9
The Role of the G-20 in the Global Financial Architecture
PDF / 76Kb
Presentation by Dr Martin Parkinson, Executive Director, Australian Treasury

2005, Oct 17
G-20 Meeting Ends, Communiqué Issued
HTML

2005, Oct 16
G-20 Delegates hold First Day Discussions on Three Topics
HTML

2005, Oct 16
Hu calls for Strengthening Global Cooperation
HTML

Full text of President Hu's speech at the G-20 Meeting
HTML

2004, Nov 21
G-20 Finance Ministers successfully concluded
PDF / 32Kb

2004, Oct 26
G-20 Conference of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 19 to 21 November in Berlin Registration for Media Representatives
PDF / 19Kb

2004, Aug 2
G-20 Conference of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 19 to 21 November in Berlin Registration for Media Representatives
PDF / 20Kb

2004, Mar 16
G-20 Conference of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 19 to 21 November in Berlin Registration for Media Representatives
PDF / 18Kb

2004, Jan 20
Shaping Globalisation Together
PDF / 140Kb

2002, Jul 16-17
Press-release issued after conclusion of G-20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting, New Delhi
PDF / 12Kb

2001, Nov 16-17
Finance Minister Sinha takes over G-20 Chair
PDF / 12Kb

2001, Nov 16
G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Ottawa to Discuss Fight Against Terrorism
HTML

2001, Nov 5
Minister of Finance Announces Venue for G-20 Ministerial in Ottawa
HTML

2001, Oct 17
G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to Meet in Ottawa
HTML

2001, Jan 24
G-20 The Ideal Forum to Tackle Problems Associated With Globalization, says Finance Minister in London
HTML

2000, Oct 23
G-20 Ministers and Governors in Montréal to Discuss Financial Vulnerability
HTML

2000, Sep 13
Minister of Finance Announces Venue for G-20 Ministerial in Montréal
HTML

2000, Aug 16
Finance Minister Meets With NGOs in Advance of G-20 Meeting
HTML

2000, May 18
Minister of Finance Stresses Need for Broader Consultation to Successfully Manage Globalization HTML

2000, Apr 05
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G-20 to Meet in Montréal in October 2000
HTML

1999, Dec 16
G-20 Commits to Efforts to Reduce Vulnerabilities to Global Financial Crises
HTML

1999, Sep 25
Finance Minister Paul Martin Chosen as Inaugural Chairperson of New Group of Twenty
HTML

Protests At G-20 Summit Remain Controlled, Largely Non-Violent
April 1st, 2009 - Wednesday

Protests at the Group of 20 Summit in London are remaining relatively subdued Wednesday, as a commanding police presence has kept the skirmishes to a minimum. Demonstrators gathered outside the Bank of England to voice their dissatisfaction with the current economic state as the global economy muddles through one of the most severe recessions of the past century."We are sick of spending money and killing people and saving bankers", Ronald Horne, self-proclaimed leader of the World Peace Group, told RTTNews.

"But we are not here to incite violence."Horne's group apparently consisted of him and two others, and there were numerous such organizations demonstrating."Our group will sit down at the outbreak of violence," Horned added.There has been significant tension at the outset of the global economic meeting, with leaders from around the world gathering to discuss the best way out of the current financial crisis. However, resentment has built against the banks and other financial institutions, sparking demonstrations with themes like "Financial Fools Day" in honor of April 1st.


The U.S. Markets opened low on fears of what could happen at the G20 Summit in England.

April Fool's no joke for bulls

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on the international community to act in concert to overcome the global economic crisis as divisions emerged before a meeting of world leaders.

“We can only meet this challenge together,” Obama said today at a joint press conference with the British leader after private talks. “All of us here in London have the responsibility to act with a sense of urgency.” Reports of disagreements are “vastly overstated,” he said.

France, Germany and Japan have all raised concerns that tomorrow’s summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations may fail to reach consensus. That would deal a blow to the summit’s aim to identify ways to end the global recession and avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that triggered it.

“This summit cannot simply agree to the lowest common denominator,” Brown said, adding that governments worldwide have so far agreed to spend about $2 trillion in stimulus programs to combat the “unprecedented” financial crisis. “We must stand united in our determination to do whatever is necessary.”

At the top of the G-20 agenda is a common regulatory framework to rein in hedge funds, derivatives trading, executive pay and risk-taking by financial firms. Nations remain divided about how much stimulus is required as well as about naming tax havens and a new global rulebook for banks.

‘Confidence and Concern’

“I’m traveling to London with a mixture of confidence and concern,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin today. The G-20 may be trying to “suppress the problems and paint things in a brighter light than they are.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the summit’s draft communiqué doesn’t do enough to crack down on tax cheats. Sarkozy’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said yesterday that he’d walk out of the summit if his push for stricter regulation flops. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso criticized Germany’s unwillingness to increase stimulus spending in the Financial Times today.

“In the current state of things, the proposals don’t suit France or Germany,” Sarkozy said on Europe 1 radio. “No agreement is secured. I know by experience that we will need to fight until the last minute.”

Expectations for the summit “are being managed down,” Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley’s Asia chairman in Hong Kong, said in an interview.

No ‘Appetite’

“There seems to be no real appetite for the leaders to deal with the imbalances in a broader global economy or their own individual economies,” Roach said. “This is not going to be a breakthrough summit.”

Obama, who arrived in London last night on his first European trip as president, downplayed the differences among the G-20 nations.

“I am absolutely confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work in concert to deal with these problems,” he said. “I think that the separation between the various parties involved has been vastly overstated.”

The recession has worsened since the G-20 leaders last met in November in Washington.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in Paris that the economy of its 30 members will contract 4.3 percent this year and predicted unemployment in the Group of Seven will reach 36 million late next year. The World Bank lowered its growth forecast for developing countries this year by more than half to 2.1 percent.

EU Spending

The deepening slump has prompted a split over how much governments need to spend to reverse the tailspin. Germany and France have led a European Union response that the $400 billion EU states have already approved should be enough and any more would drive debt too high. Aso is preparing his third stimulus plan.

“There are countries that understand the importance of fiscal mobilization, and there are some other countries that do not -- which is why, I believe, Germany has come up with their views,” Aso told the FT in an interview.

The president sought to strike a balance between urging nations to take bolder action and coming across as overbearing - - a trait many in Europe ascribed to his predecessor, George W. Bush.

“We’re not going to agree on every point. I came here to put forward our ideas. But I also came here to listen, not to lecture,” Obama said.

“Having said that, we must not miss an opportunity to lead, to confront a crisis that knows no borders. We have a responsibility to coordinate our actions and to focus on common ground, not on our occasional differences.”


INTERNATIONAL HOPE CAMPAIGN



World Leaders Test Obama: China Calls For Global Currency To Replace Dollar... Russia Wants US To Back Off Range Of Policies.... France Threatens To Walk Out If Strict Regulations Aren't Adopted... Obama's Wednesday Schedule: Meeting With Queen Elizabeth II, Attending G-20 Dinner READ HUFFPOST'S G-20 BIGNEWS PAGE

FINANCIAL NEWS: Asian Stocks Rise On Speculation Of U.S. Auto Bankruptcies... Mexico To Get $30B-$40B Line Of Credit From IMF... Chase Tops Goldman In Arranging Rights Offers... Private Sector Axes 742,000 Jobs In March... Wall Street Drops At Beginning Of Second Quarter




Nobody making fool of bulls - Click here for story.

April bulls off to strong start
The Markets today went to the bulls (again !!!) , as the Dow rosed (after a low triple-digit sell-off this morning) to +152.68 (+2.01 %) to 7761.68 . And Nasdaq stayed above with +23.01 points ( +1.51 %) to 1551.60 .

• GM: - 0.01 (-0.52%) 1.93
• AIG: +0.07 (+7.00) 1.07
• GOOG: +0.91 (+0.26%) 354.09
• ETFC: +0.04 (+3.20%) 1.25
• ANF: +0.47 (+1.97%) 24.27

The Feds Seizes Bernard Madoff's Yacht In Florida

Federal marshals seized Bernard L. Madoff’s 55-foot luxury yacht and a 24-foot speedboat in Florida on Wednesday as part of the government’s effort to recover assets to pay back investors in Mr. Madoff’s enormous Ponzi scheme.

The yacht, named “Bull,” is a 1969 Rybovich that is valued at $2.2 million, according to Barry Golden, a spokesman for the United States Marshals Service. He told The Palm Beach Post that the yacht, seized at a Fort Lauderdale marina, was “in mint condition.” The speedboat was seized at a warehouse in Palm City.

The yacht had been docked at the Roscioli Yachting Center for at least a dozen years during the off-season, the marina’s owner, Bob Roscioli, told The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Mr. Roscioli said the boat had recently undergone repairs, including a complete paint job and repairs to the keel. He said the bill for the repairs as about $130,000 and was paid about a month before Mr. Madoff was arrested on fraud charges for running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

“I knew it was coming,” Mr. Roscioli said, referring to the yacht seizure. “It was just a matter of time.”

Mr. Golden said federal marshals received the sealed seizure warrant from Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 23.

National Liquidators, the nation’s largest boat recovery and auction company based in Fort Lauderdale, will take possession of the boats, pending further orders from the federal court, Mr. Golden told The Sun Sentinel.

“Now starts the process of seizing assets,” Mr. Golden said.

Mr. Madoff is in jail awaiting sentencing in June after pleading guilty last month to charges of fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of 150 years behind bars.

Court documents show Mr. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, had $823 million in assets at the end of last year — including the boats.