Analyst Downgrades (GS, LEH, AMTD)

Investors began dumping their shares in Lehman Brothers (LEH) before the opening bell. By 7 am ET, the stock was down about 18% in premarket trading, to $32.25, and the loss grew to 28% before 8am, to $28.20. It's now down 20% in early trading.

After reading our "Lehman Too Big To Fail?" post this morning, a high-level Lehman insider quickly reached out with two key reasons why Lehman (LEH) isn't in the same predicament as Bear Stearns (BSC):

* The Fed's new move--giving broker-dealers access to the discount window--changes the whole ball-game. If the Fed had made this move last Wednesday, the insider argues, Bear wouldn't have been toast.
* Lehman's liquidity ratio is far stronger than Bear's was. This assertion is supported by a couple of analyst reports, which we've excerpted below.

Now that European markets have closed, it seems that the US markets are taking a decided turn for the worse, with Lehman Brothers unsurprisingly leading the way down: it's dropped more than 40% so far today and no one knows where the floor might be.