Oppenheimer bank analyst Meredith Whitney has taken a dim view of bank earnings for some time. Her research has caused sell-offs in big financial company shares on more than one occasion. But, with the…
Goldman Sachs repeated its opinion that Citigroup (C) is a "sell" and probably would not make a cent until late in 2009. Goldman claims that credit markets are too tough for Citi to make…
Those hoping for any magic recovery at Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) are going to have to wait a little longer. The troubled regional bank is trading lower Tuesday eventhough everyone should have been…
There are many new initiatives for "taking stakes" and "financing packages" this morning. Most of these seem to be coming from actual competitors rather than from our government, although that isn’t the case in…
Analysts often as about "earnings quality". How accurate are quarterly numbers? Are they being "managed" to make a company’s fortunes appear better than they actually are? The question has come up in relationship to…
No matter how badly the economy is doing and what shareholders in American financial firms have lost, it would be a shame to see investment bankers go without their bonuses. According to The London…
The recent turmoil in the credit markets has created problems for issues of the highest quality debt all the way down to the junkiest of junk bonds which trade at ratings under "BBB" or…
The problems are mounting for Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD). Yesterday, the drug store operator received a non-compliance letter from the NYSE over its shares trading under $1.00 for the last 30-day period. The…
Bank earnings were hit hard this week. Even if the results at Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), and JP Morgan (JPM) did not drive the credit system into insolvency, each company had forecasts which…
Henry Paulson seems like a very large and old Eagle Scout. He would never mislead, at least not on purpose. He gave the impression as he announced that Treasury would dump $250 billion into…
A lot of people on Wall St. were worried about the future of Merrill Lynch (MER) and were glad when Bank of America (BAC) bought it. Now, Bank of America may be unhappy. Merrill…
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW) posted a 4% earnings drop down to $0.26 EPS, which is after a $0.04 item for previously disclosed charges. Revenues fell 3% from Q3-2007 down to $1.251 billion,…
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is following Jamie Dimon’s lead this morning with better results than other banks. The only "AAA" rated bank posted $0.49 EPS vs. $0.41 estimates. Revenues were $10.38 billion…
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) has just released earnings and Jamie Dimon is showing he is a better manager even than the most positive reviews have given him over the years. The banking giant made…
Paulson’s plan to put $250 billion into nine banks, whether they want the money or not, is really supposed to do as much for financial firm customers as it is for the companies themselves.…