52-Week Lows Soon Gone in Banks (BAC, C, JPM, WFC, FAS)

We have looked at Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Wells Fargo & Company (NASDAQ: WFC) as the key money center banks.  If you go further down the quality chain, the results are even more skewed.  That is why we included the triple-leverage Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS).  All figures are below…

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was at $3.74 on March 9, but it closed at $31.13 and $31.16 the two trading days before that.  Literally one week later it closed at $6.17 and two weeks later it closed at $7.78.  A month after the March 9 low is closed at $9.53 before trading up to $11.00 and then back under $9.00 before making its move higher.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) is still a very low priced stock but it is always active.  Citi got so bad the week before March 9 that it broke under a buck to $0.97 but never really closed under the $1.00 mark.  On March 9, 2009 it closed at $1.05.  A week later it was at $2.33 and two weeks later it was at $3.13.  On April 9 shares were at $3.04.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is the best of the best banks.  On March 9, 2009 its shares hit $15.81 for the close. A week later its shares were at $22.96 and two weeks later shares were at $28.70.  On April9 shares were at $32.62.  There was never a period in any recent years or anywhere close to what we saw in the best capitalized and best run bank.

Wells Fargo & Company (NASDAQ: WFC), Warren Buffett’s favorite bank, closed at $9.89 on March 9, 2009.  A week later it closed at 13.60 and two weeks  later it closed at $17.20.  By April 9 its stock had closed at $19.46.

The biggest changes will come in the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) as the triple leverage ETF.  Things got bad enough that Direxion had to reverse split.  At $76.81 now, its 52-week range is $11.60 to $94.54.  Its March 9, 2009 close was $13.42.  One week later it was at $24.21, and two-weeks later it was at $35.20.  By April 9, 2009 it was back at $43.41.

In another month these stocks are still going to look as though they are much higher than their trailing 52-week lows.  The difference is that these stocks will no longer trade exponentially above their 52-week lows.  This has also started to take a large bite into the 200-day moving averages of many key stocks as their old much lower prices are being replaced by today’s much higher prices.

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JON C. OGG