"There's plenty of money out there. But capital is on strike." - Dr. Peter Linneman, respected real estate economist for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, on the freeze in commercial real estate lending. (Dallas News, Jan. 28th)
The boom in launching diversified mortgage REITs during the mid-2000s has officially busted. Hypo Real Estate Bank International AG is folding its US commercial mREIT, Quadra Realty Trust (QRR), back into its portfolio less than 12 months after Quadra's February 2007 IPO.
We think inflation is on the rise, a sense confirmed by another new all-time high in the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index last week. We also think that barring a severe economic slowdown, higher inflation implies higher interest rates. While both of these possibilities suggest some headwinds for the stock market, as often repeated in these missives we don?t see signs of a ?top? despite our lingering worries about optimistic valuations. In fact, on a purely technical basis, the chart of the S&P 500 looks...
So far the equity markets have ignored the "rate ratchet," causing one frustrated Wall Street wag to lament, "Hey Jeff, I am afraid of this market because it is overvalued, over-extended and overdue for a correction, yet I have to play the long side since my performance has to keep up with 'the Jones,' the Dow Jones that is, so what am I to do?!" As stated in last week's verbal strategy comments, our friend Barry Ritholtz, eponymous captain...
Abbi Adest submits:It's a slow week for IPOs. The three companies going public this week are: Opnext (OPXT), which manufactures optical components for the telecom industry; Quadra Realty Trust (QRR), a new REIT managed by the Hypo Real Estate Capital Corporation; Salary.com (SLRY), a company that provides corporate payroll software.
All quotations are from the companies' most recent S-1 filings with links provided for each company.
Stock News 
Excerpt from Raymond James strategist 
