MF Global Put Up for Sale, This Weekend Only

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http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/mf-global-securities-prices-plummet-as-firm-races-toward-a-sale/

MF Global is racing to sell itself before the markets reopen on Monday, with its stock and bond prices nearly in a free fall.

The pressures on MF Global, a commodities and derivatives brokerage firm, and its chief executive, Jon S. Corzine — once the chief of Goldman Sachs and a former New Jersey governor — are enormous. With two major credit ratings agencies having cut their ratings on the firm to junk status, a sale of some kind appears to be MF Global’s only hope for survival.

In the space of only a week, MF Global has shed two-thirds of its market value. Its shares plunged 16 percent on Friday to $1.20, after having briefly dipped below $1 earlier in the day. And its five-year bonds tumbled to 49 cents, according to data from Trace research service.

By Friday afternoon, MF Global executives had become focused on selling the entire firm by Sunday evening, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. Other possibilities, including a sale of just its futures brokerage arm, remained on the table but were becoming less likely.

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1. Is this a harbinger of things to come in the financial section?

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2. i don't know.

somebody more knowledgeable might be able to say.