any comments, thoughts, on this stock.

No I meant I'm short and I can't see it going up.

There's also this for anyone who hasn't seen it

The European Commission has requested information from the British authorities over the government bail-out of Northern Rock, concerned that it could violate EU state aid laws if support leads to distortion of the banking market.

Bank bail-out may breach EU competition laws

Any point in holding on to these at current levels for the divi. or will this enevitably require to be slashed in view of s.p. collapse. ? Regards.

Darling won't pay the divi !!

Last thing a company that has no money does is pay a dividend.

Speaking of going down, what happened there!

quite right too Kayak, as current price shows

When Carter & Carter dropper from grace it fell from 1100p to 40p. Is this going to repeat that? Its difficult to see the bottom, I'm not a holder just an interested bystander.

i don't think i am brave enough to short NRK now, but AL. having recovered so specatularly could be worth a minor short - i shan't, but am sure glad i took my o'night profit there this morning, for otherwise would now be back to break-even on that position.

rumour of a 2 bid and lloyds has cut its stake in Northern rock - according to broker

Lloyds TSB not bidding for Northern Rock - industry sources


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Lloyds TSB, the UK bank, is not bidding 200
pence per share for beleaguered mortgage lender Northern Rock, industry sources
said.
"There is no truth to the rumour," one source said in an interview.
At 10.40 am Northern Rock shares were down by over 10 pct, or 32 pence, at
274. The FTSE 100 was up nearly 2 pct, or 121.10 at 6,404.40.
Lloyds TSB refused to comment.

So NRK is not worth even 200p.

That's your interpretation of that comment. But that is not what it says.

Now had notification that General Motors are restricting their lending on new build properties and self certification mortgages.
Both types are now restricted to 75% Loan to Value.
this is indicative of their opinion that sub prime still has many problems and the new build restriction is probably due to nervousness of the direction of house prices.
Alan

Thank goodness I'm mortgage free. Was a struggle at times, but in those days they only lent you what you could afford to repay. 3 times principle salary plus 1 times secondary salary.

No ones fault except peoples unrealistic expectations I'm afraid.

NRK closes at 252p...wow

( 252....Wow) - And I thought it was a good purchase a couple of days ago - doesn't look so good now, yet I suspect the business is fine and can continue (more-or-less) as before; albeit with higher Mortgage charges....it will remain to be seen what happens during this week..... a Buying opportunity, anyone?

Just goes to show how Willing this Market is, to be spooked.

Adam Applegarth has already admitted that the business model of NRK is not going to work (read the telegraph 2 days ago). So 200p and below on the way. This is not a spook.

Do General Motors really provide housing loans? If so, do they only consider loan to value, which is more akin to pawnbroking than bank lending? No wonder the financial market is in a mess - used to be "stick to the knitting" when I was a lad.

General Motors provide all kinds of financing, including first and second charge residential lending.
The LTV question is a good one and very complex. They consider much more than that, but the lower the LTV, the higher amount of problems they would ignore.
3 months ago, you could achieve 85% LTV regardless of proving any income, regardless of mortgage payment profile and regardless of county court judgements, defaults and IVA's. Now, any touch of problems means just 75% LTV with them.
There are still many lenders offering similar product to GM 3 months ago, but fewer and fewer. Those that are have hiked their rates massively, and others have withdrawn altogether. One has gone into administration.
Some of those left and hiking or withdrawing include names like General Electric, Lehman Bros and Morgan Stanley.
The big guns have issues. Perhaps we should too.