Wall Street Greek: Today's Key Market News - Railroading the Stock Market

(Stocks in article: NYSE: BCS, NYSE: BSC, NYSE: MER, NYSE: LEH, NYSE: C, NYSE: MHS, NASDAQ: PLMD, NYSE: BNI, NYSE: NSC, NYSE: UNP, NASDAQ: XOMA, NYSE: PFE, NASDAQ: COCO, NYSE: CKR, NYSE: BRK-A, NYSE: MCO, NYSE: IMB, NYSE: WM)

Stocks are opening with a slump this morning, after Asia and Europe both moved lower. Europe has counter drivers playing roles today, kind of. Barclay's Capital (NYSE: BCS) is reportedly facing hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure to failed debt vehicles created by its investment banking arm. On the other side of the tug of rope German business confidence came in better than expected, but dropped to a 10-month low. Not a very strong positive driver...

In the news we handpicked for you below and in our sidebar section of the same name, bargain seeking, long-term investing Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) has reportedly increased its railroad stake. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) downgraded the shares of its peers, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), sending the financial sector into a bit of a spin. Moody's (NYSE: MCO) has not helped the situation, as it placed IndyMac (NYSE: IMB) under review while affirming the rating on Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM). Wall Street Greek and Senator Dodd alike would like to see more foresight from the rating agencies. We agree with the Senator that a deep review should be undertaken to inspect the level of due diligence being employed at these firms. We suggest readers see our value-added weekly market-moving event planner, "The Greek's Week Ahead - Wall Street's Summer Wind."