Goldman's Spin Eases Market Jitters

Bear Stearns (BSC) should have poached Goldman Sachs' (GS) public relations team.

If they'd had such spin wizards at the helm, perhaps Bear Stearns would have been able to couch the massive losses at its namesake hedge funds as great opportunities, too.

That's what Goldman Sachs did on a conference call Monday morning, after it released news that its Global Equity Opportunities fund had lost 30% of its value last week, and its Global Alpha multistrategy hedge fund has lost 27% of its value this year.

By clarifying Goldman Sachs' $3 billion investment with two partners to the Global Equity Opportunity fund as "a good investment opportunity," and "not a rescue," the white-shoe firm at once soothed jittery investors' nerves and tapped into the new zeitgeist of the markets.

"Merger Mondays" have given way to rescue, or bailout, or now, "opportunity" Mondays. The trend may not last, however, as those prone to buying the dips seem fewer and farther between. As it becomes clearer that the credit markets' challenges are nowhere near over, those investors looking for such opportunities may wait longer before jumping in.

After gaining as much as 98 points in Monday's session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped back in afternoon trading to end down a fraction at 13,236.53. The S&P 500 closed down 0.05% to 1452.92 after gaining as much as 12 points intraday. The Nasdaq Composite finished down 0.1% at 2542.23 after having been higher by as many as 27 points.