Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word financing. 5 news.

CANADA'S non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market will start trading for the first time in four months after a deal was struck between investors holding about C$33 billion (US$33.3 billion) of the short-term debt. The group, led by Toronto lawyer Purdy Crawford, agreed yesterday to swap the commercial paper for longer-term notes, ending a suspension in trading prompted by investor concern about ties to US subprime mortgages. "I am confident that this plan will provide most holders of outstanding commercial paper with the opportunity to receive the full repayment of principal by holding restructured notes to maturity," Crawford said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News yesterday. The Canadian market for asset-backed commercial paper sold by non-bank dealers ground to a halt in August after Coventree Inc and other trusts failed to renew maturing debt. Banks refused to provide backup financing, freezing the market and putting funds at risk of collapsing, even

Merrill Lynch said Monday it will take $6.2 billion in investments from the Singapore government and a mutual fund manager to shore up its capital base, as many analysts expect the investment bank to announce a second consecutive quarterly loss next month. It is the latest instance of a Western bank to seek emergency financing from [...]

Merrill Lynch, in an effort to raise cash amid mounting mortgage losses, agreed Monday to sell the majority of its capital finance business to General Electric for an undisclosed amount. The deal will allow Merrill to reallocate about $1.3 billion of capital into other parts of its business, John A. Thain, the investment bank’s chief executive, [...]

Goldman Sachs on Friday agreed to buy a $260.5 million stake in First Marblehead, shoring up the troubled student-loan company and sending its stock soaring. The investment bank also agreed to extend a $1 billion credit line to First Marblehead, providing a crucial source of financing for the company. Shares of First Marblehead surged 66.4 percent [...]

It's now conventional wisdom that a housing bubble has burst. In fact, there were two bubbles, a housing bubble and a financing bubble. Each fueled the other, but they didn't follow the same course.