James Grant, Baltimore Sun alumnus and financial Cassandra, sees a few buying opportunities in the stock market. One may be PHH Corp. whose fleet-management division is based in Baltimore County. The latest edition of the Grant's Interest Rate Observer letter expatiates on PHH stock. You have to subscribe to read Grant's, but the previews of the Oct. 17 edition include this teaser, which is obviously PHH. PHH's Chairman is Alex. Brown and CIA alum Buzzy Krongard. Can't tell what the ultimate recommendation is. (The stock's low, low price only "shades" the discussion about whether to buy, Grant says, but doesn't close it.)

ELEGY ON VALUE [COMPANY] formerly a cheap stock, is today a very cheap stock. That fact might close the investment discussion. Instead, it only shades it. You may recall--some readers will hardly be able to forget--our previous analyses of this provider of mortgage and fleet management services (Grant's, February 8 and May 16). We were bullish. At $19 or $20 a share, we pointed out, the stock was priced for the imputed value of the fleet management business alone. The mortgage and mortgage-servicing businesses came for free. Now, the price is $9 a share, or one-third of book value, and the mortgage businesses come cheaper than free. . . .

UPDATE: The stock just got even cheaper. It's below $8 this morning.