Stock Market

In 2007 Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were trading above $60; now, with shares hovering around $1, the companies are delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, reports the Washington Post. While Freddie’s shares were trading above $1, Fannie has been below for 30 trading days. According to the NYSE rules, a company has to “take action to boost its shares or delist.” Shares for both companies tumbled more than 40 percent after the announcement. Both Fannie and Freddie plan to start trading on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board on July 8.

A complicated claims process helped bring about a new $20 billion fund set up by BP (BP) for damage claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to Reuters. The money would be paid into the fund over a period of four years. To help create the fund, BP agreed to “cut three quarters of dividends, significantly reduce its investment program and sell $10 billion of assets.” The company also has to pay $100 million to workers who are unable to work during the six months of halted deep-sea drilling. The deal seems to help both sides: Obama now has “his most tangible success since the crisis began 58 days ago,” and BP has little less pressure on it.

The $20 billion fund set up by BP could be dwarfed by potential criminal charges and rising civil fine estimates, according to the New York Times. For all the oil escaping into the Gulf, BP could owe $280 million. However, the real costs would come from legal costs and criminal fines that could reach $62 billion, according to Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. Most likely, BP will be charged for environmental misdemeanors since “merely negligent actions can lead to misdemeanor penalties.” Any tougher penalties would require proving that BP “knew its actions would lead to the gushing well on the ocean floor.”

The circuit breakers put in place after May’s “flash crash” began operating this week and not a moment too soon: They were triggered Wednesday when the price of Washington Post Company (WPO) shares doubled in a second, reports the Financial Times. Three erroneous trades went through around 3 p.m., causing the breakers to kick in and halt trading on the company’s shares. The breakers were put in place to halt trading in an S&P 500 stock “if the price either rises or falls by 10 percent inside a period of five minutes.” Afterward, a total of 766 shares in three separate orders were determined to be incorrect.

Once again, AT&T (T) has proven itself incapable of handling the sheer amount of customers Apple (AAPL) brings in, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newest iPhone was available for preorder, but after 600,000 advance orders, AT&T had “difficulty processing orders.” The carrier had system malfunctions, and there were “reports that some customers had inadvertently gained access to others’ account information.” After the troubles AT&T stopped taking preorders yesterday but might take more orders before the phone is released on June 24. According to Apple’s site, “customers who preorder the iPhone 4 will receive their phones on July 14.”

After almost a week, Spirit airlines will no longer be grounded by a pilot strike when its planes take to the sky on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. The strike cost the airline “an estimated $2 million a day in lost revenue.” The airline left its passengers stranded—roughly 1 percent of U.S. passengers—even though it was supposed to “team up with other airlines to serve its customers in the event of a strike.” Spirit may have made the pilots happy, but it now has to work on winning back its customers.

Finally, companies that aren’t among the World Cup’s official sponsors are using “guerilla-marketing tactics” to get around FIFA’s restricted zones, according to the Wall Street Journal. The event is so exclusive that companies who didn’t pay the millions of dollars to become an official sponsor can’t advertise close to the venues. Despite the restrictions, companies have taken to plastering Johannesburg with advertisements. Others are resorting to drastic measures like the pair of women who supposedly were “involved in a large scale ambush marketing effort by Dutch brewer Bavaria NV.”

Fannie Mae – New York Stock Exchange – Freddie Mac – Gulf of Mexico – Apple