Bear Stearns' Cayne Goes AWOL

Bear Stearns' (BSC) sticky summer seems to be taking its toll on CEO Jimmy Cayne.

The New York-based brokerage firm is suffering through the toughest market it has seen in 22 years, CFO Sam Molinaro said Friday afternoon on a conference call with analysts and investors.

"The fixed-income market environment we've seen in the last eight weeks," Molinaro said on a call held to address Standard & Poor's cut of its outlook on Bear's credit rating, "has been pretty extreme."

The extreme stress may well have caught up with the 73-year-old Cayne, judging by his diffidence on Friday's conference call. Just two hours after thundering that his firm was "disappointed" at S&P's reduced ratings outlook, Cayne's presence on the 2 p.m. EDT call was inexplicably low-key, to say the least.

Cayne opened the call by saying he was "extremely pleased" with how Bear Stearns workers had handled an emerging credit crisis. He said the firm was "taking the situation seriously."

He then turned the floor over to Molinaro -- and wasn't heard from again. At one point, an analyst asked whether this year's 33% drop in Bear Stearns shares made for an opportunity to buy back stock.

"I think this one might be for Jimmy," the analyst said, before going on to explain why the circumstances might justify a buyback.

There was silence on the other end of the line as it emerged that Jimmy wasn't there. Molinaro then took the question, saying Bear is focused now on making sure it has "ample liquidity."

Bear certainly has ample questions by now. Shares fell 6% in heavy trading Friday as investors continue to flee shares of the bank, which is hung up on hard-to-sell bridge loans. Bear's reputation has been severely besmirched by a series of hedge fund fumbles (three -- and counting).