Under The Radar News - Tuesday

Bernanke's future bleak. Ben Bernanke's first term as Fed chairman expires in two years. With growing criticism that the Fed was behind the curve on recent market turmoil, Bernanke's best chance of another term is presumably if a Republican wins the presidency. The problem? John McCain, the likely candidate, has been less-than-flattering of Bernanke.

CDOs face great fall. Fitch Ratings may lower $220 billion of collateralized debt obligations [CDOs] by as many as five levels as losses on mortgage-backed securities mount. AAA-rated credit-default swaps that aren't actively managed may face the steepest downgrades.

U.S. capital access plunges. Milken's Capital Access Index (.pdf), which monitors the ability of nations to fund entrepreneurial activity, places the U.S. at #11, down from #5. All top-ten nations posted decreases in available capital.

Hot coals. Citigroup says coal prices will double in 2008-2009, with producers such as BHP (BHP) Mitsubishi Alliance warning that coal deliveries will be delayed. And you thought your electricity bill was high now.

Can RBS stop £12.5B gap? The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is trying to convince investors it has enough capital to plug an estimated £12.5 billion hole it its balance sheet, after worries it will have to sell stock to raise funds have put pressure on share prices.

Spectrum auction gets interesting. The single-largest $4.7B bid for the coveted 50-state C-band wireless spectrum package has been one-upped by the combined value of separate bids for the eight regional licenses in the block. In order to beat the current bid and secure the C-band license nationwide, a bidder now has to top $5.2 billion in Round 31. Otherwise, the spectrum will be sliced up into eight pieces. Google Inc. (GOOG), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and AT&T Inc. (T) are assumed to be aggressive bidders.

Taking on the Tata Nano. GM (GM) may boost its stake in its Chinese JV SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile in an effort to develop a competitor to the Tata Nano. Industry sources say GM, Nissan (NSANY) and others have plans for $3,000-4,000 cars.

For sale: Nike Bauer. Nike's (NKE) Bauer hockey unit is for sale. Nike wants to exit the 'stagnant' hockey market and increase its soccer lineup.

AskDigg.com. IAC's (IACI) Ask and Digg.com are collaborating on a website that will launch "very soon." The site is thought to be a white-label version of Digg.com.

Intel/ST Micro put flash in the pan. Although flash memory is not yet standard in PCs, Intel (INTC) and partner ST Micro (STM) announced a breakthrough that doubles the capacity of 'phase-change' memory, putting it at par with current flash capacity, but with much faster speeds.

Getting rid of the old... Intel (INTC) has delayed the launch of its X48 chipset until March in order to clear out older inventories. INTC had told motherboard makers it would launch the X48 in January.

Flextronics flexes its pixels. Flextronics (FLEX) is poised to ship nearly 12M ODM/OEM digital cameras in 2008, thereby surpassing Sanyo as #4 ODM/OEM camera maker, and challenging the top-three.

Lennar lands "significant investor." Scala Real Estate Partners is taking at least a 30% stake in Lennar's (LEN) Hunters Point shipyard, Candlestick Point and Treasure Island projects.

Steel for a steal. ArcelorMittal (MT) may have to reduce its 92.1% stake in Chinese steelmaker China Oriental in order to satisfy Hong Kong exchange requirements that the public hold 25% of a listed company's shares.

Cuban to Yahoo: Say 'I do.' Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban says Yahoo (YHOO) should take Microsoft's (MSFT) $46.1B offer. Cuban says Microsoft's strength lies in its ability to ignore the Street and develop its strategies methodically.