Barclays Capital - follow the flow of communications

A good opportunity to analyse the information flows related to Barclays Capital comes with today's rushed announcement to calm City concerns.

Last week major rumours swept financial markets that Barclays was in greater trouble than it was admitting over collaterised debt obligations (CDO). Barclays Capital, part of Barclays, and one of the main driver of profit for the group, had been one of the most aggressive operators in terms of handling and repackaging subprime mortgages. Interesting to note the intensity of the information flows around this topic of Barclays rumours. According to Google there are over 500,000 search results on the topic. I went to page 10 of these on the Google Search page and they were still highly relevant. A good example of an information "firestorm".

Today they have rushed out an announcement from Barclays Capital, see link above which has covered in great detail, Barclays treatment and exposure to collaterised debt obligations. Seems reassuring and initial coverage on the story seems to be reassuring markets.

Barclays share price at 1251, Thursday was: 533p up 6p on the day suggesting that markets take this positively. A good example of market transparency at work? Let's see the reaction tomorrow and later in the week.