Bear Stearns Shares Show Cayne's Dummy `Body Blow' Won't Prove Massive

(Bloomberg) -- When Bear Stearns Cos. Chief
Executive Officer James E. ``Jimmy'' Cayne told the New York
Times the failure of the firm's hedge funds was a ``body blow of
massive proportion,'' he may have been using a tactic honed in
three decades of championship bridge.

To win the card game, a player sometimes will misstate the
number of tricks he can win to dupe opponents into
underestimating his hand. So far, Bear Stearns shareholders
aren't showing much anxiety. The stock has outperformed its peers
since Cayne's remarks were published on June 29, even after Bear
Stearns told investors in the High-Grade Structured Credit
Strategies and High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced
Leverage funds that almost all of their money was wiped out.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Bear Stearns Says There is `No Value Left' for Investors in Failed Funds

(Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. told investors in
its two failed hedge funds that they will get little if any money
back after ``unprecedented declines'' in the value of AAA rated
securities used to bet on subprime mortgages.

Estimates show there is ``effectively no value left'' in the
High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund
and ``very little value left'' in the High-Grade Structured
Credit Strategies Fund, Bear Stearns said in a two-page letter.
The second fund still has ``sufficient assets'' to cover the $1.4
billion it owes Bear Stearns, which as a creditor gets paid back
first, according to the letter, obtained yesterday by Bloomberg
News from a person involved in the matter.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News