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Dividend.com: AIG Wants a Break

Tom Reese and Paul Rubillo

AIG Looks for a Reprieve -- Again

American International Group(AIG Quote) may be looking to the Federal Reserve to relax rules on how bidders pay for assets as it tries to repay a $60 billion loan.

The insurer believes it can create competition for the assets by allowing bidders to pay using a greater portion of shares, or through installments. The current scenario the company is operating under is that it can only sell assets to bidders putting up 90% of the price in cash.

This is just the latest in the "we need help again" ritual we have come to see with AIG. Remember last month the company received a $150 billion rescue package -- replacing the previously agreed on $85 billion. As far as the latest, putting up 90% in cash may be a bit tough in this environment, but to start the "stretch it out" game will eventually get us back to the where we started. We'll be watching for the Fed's response. In the meantime, we would still avoid the speculative shares at this time.

AIG is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars.

Dell Continues Housecleaning

Dell(DELL Quote) is announcing that its president of global operations and chief marketing officer will leave the company as part of a global restructuring.

The interesting fact is that the two executives came in after Michael Dell came back to take over last year. The company is shifting its structure to four areas of business and away from regional departments. The first is global information technology. The second will focus on government customers. The third will be aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and the last will deal with the company's consumer business

It sounds like the company is going back to the basics. We can expect a big push to get the enterprise business numbers back to where they were accustomed to. The consumer area is feeling the hit from Apple's(AAPL Quote) recent dominance. The company has technical support at the $9 level, but if this fails to hold, there is not much support until shares break below the $5 level. Is shares can consolidate and move higher, we see overhead resistance in the $12 to $15 price area.

Dell does not currently pay a dividend.

Mortgage Rates Continue to Plummet

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen for the ninth week in a row, and are now at record lows.

The latest mortgage data shows this week's 30-year rates are averaging 5.10%, down from 5.14% last week and 6.07% a year ago. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also fell, averaging 4.83% this week, down from 4.91% last week and 5.68% a year ago.

The numbers have never been seen so low, since the Freddie Mac(FRE Quote) survey started in 1971.

The low numbers are good, but it also does emphasize how poor demand may be for loans at this time. The refinance markets are the ones most in need, but banks are looking at many loans that are underwater or close to it, so there may be some hesitancy on what can actually get done to help a borrower. We will be watching this important story very closely.

Fannie Mae(FNM Quote) and Freddie Mac are not recommended at this time, and we would avoid these speculative stock plays that are both trading under $1 a share.

SEC Refuses to Suspend Accounting Rule

The Securities and Exchange Commission is refusing to change its accounting rule that some in the financial community are blaming for exacerbating the financial crisis.

An SEC regulator commented that the fair-value accounting rule did not appear to play a meaningful role in the bank failures that occurred in 2008. The SEC is recommending a change in accounting for so-called impaired securities. They would be willing to give companies more guidance on determining the value of investments in inactive markets.

Banks such as JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) and Citigroup(C Quote) are required to record assets every quarter to reflect market value. When the subprime crisis hit and the market collapsed, banks were hit with huge losses. We believe there may be some give and take that happens soon, but the SEC should not let transparency go back to the old ways. We need to rebuild investor confidence and masking any potential losses is a detriment to the process.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system.