Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index are rising, up about 0.2% as the market readies for Thursday’s session.
Shares of E-Trade Financial�(ETFC) are falling, down more than 6% after news broke last night that Ken Griffin’s Citadel is going to sell all of its E-Trade stock.
Citadel in 2011 asked E*Trade to hire a bank to review strategic alternatives and take immediate action to maximize�shareholder value�after �catastrophic losses� that had driven the shares down 97 percent since 2007. The hedge fund invested $2.55 billion in E*Trade in November 2007 to help the company survive mortgage losses.
While E*Trade refused to put the company up for sale last year, it ousted Chief Executive Officer Steven J. Freiberg in August and named Citadel�s Griffin to the search committee. Freiberg was replaced by former Barclays Plc executive Paul Idzik in January as the company�s fifth top executive in five years.
The sale represents about $323.9 million, based on today�s closing price of $11.82. E*Trade won�t get any proceeds from the sale, according to today�s release. The offering of stock at market price is expected to close by about March 19.
As of yesterday’s close, E-Trade’s stock was up 32% this year.
Shares of SandRidge Energy (SD) are up about 1.5% after it essentially bowed to pressure by an activist investor and agreed to clean house at the very the top:
The company, based in Oklahoma City, Okla., said Wednesday that it would review its strategy, costs and certain transactions with entities controlled by relatives of Tom Ward, its chairman and CEO. The company also cut directors’ annual pay to $250,000 from $375,000.
Mr. Ward’s prospects of retaining his job appeared to dim. SandRidge said it would decide whether to fire him by the end of June; if he remains, three incumbent directors would resign and TPG-Axon would get another seat on the board, giving the hedge fund, which has repeatedly called for Mr. Ward’s ouster, majority representation.
“We believe these actions open a new chapter for SandRidge,” its lead independent director, Jeffrey Serota, said in a statement.
Ward’s likely departure, on the heels of his old buddy Aubrey McClendon at Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is a clear win for shareholders.
J.C. Penney (JCP) leads the S&P 500 ahead of the bell, with its stock up 2.6%. The retailer’s CFO spoke at a major consumer and retailer conference yesterday.
Elsewhere, WSJ has a great story this morning which suggests we may soon learn that the financial markets are even more rigged and corrupt than anyone had thought:
U.S. regulators are scrutinizing whether prices are being manipulated in the world’s largest gold market, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining the setting of prices in London, in which a handful of banks meet twice daily and set the spot price for a troy ounce of physical gold, the people said.
The CFTC is looking at issues including whether the setting of prices for gold�and the smaller silver market�is transparent. No formal investigation has been opened, the people said.
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