Category: Banking Stocks
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Two Bank Stocks to Buy Right Now / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: Although we're still in the middle of the worst financial crisis in decades, a few select banks are positioned to make a boatload of profits. And if you pick the right ones, gains of 100% or more are easily within reach.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's actions in cutting short-term interest rates to almost zero - together with a gentle rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields since the start of the year - have given us a steeply sloping yield curve, where long-term rates are about 3% above short-term rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 02, 2009
HSBC Rights Issue, is Britain's Healthiest Bank Now Also in Trouble? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: MoneyWeek
We're in trouble now. Arguably the healthiest bank in the FTSE 100, HSBC, is now running to its shareholders with its palm outstretched.
The banking giant said this morning that it's looking to raise £12.5bn from shareholders. It also slashed its dividend by nearly a third. Pre-tax profit for 2008 came in at $9.3bn, down 62% on the previous year, reports the BBC.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Goldman Sachs and Financials XLF: A Tale of Two Charts / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Kingsley_Anderson
Generally, stocks in the same industry move together. If airline stocks are trending higher, logic would dictate each of the stocks within the group should be moving higher as well. Now, some may move faster and higher than others, those are the best in breed. Sometimes, but rarely, a stock will not move at all. These are usually the “cheap” stocks that some may call a value play. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
U.S. Zombie Banks to Avoid and Hidden Gems / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week proposed a series of programs, totaling $1.5 trillion, to bail out the U.S. banking system. Of course, Geithner hasn't told us precisely how he plans to spend the money , or identified which banks require such an enormous outlay.
So I thought it was worth looking at the United States' 12 largest banks to see where the problems might be and identify which banks might need big infusions of government cash. I perused the financial statements of all 12 banks, and also looked at their market valuations.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
No Transparency In Banking Sector "Stress Test" / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Mike_Shedlock
The New York times is discussing a "stress test" for banks in Bank Test May Expand U.S. Regulators' Role . Three things stand out. 1. A massive audit of the 18 largest banks is underway.
2. There is no transparency in the audit.
3. There are no details on the alleged "stress test". Moreover, an audit can hardly be construed to be a stress test.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Wells Fargo's Frightening Balance Sheet / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Mike_Shedlock
This look at Wells Fargo (WFC) strangely begins with an investigation into 3.875% mortgage loans - fixed for 30 years - offered by Arbor Custom Homes near Portland Oregon. 3.875% is rather interesting given that current mortgage rates are much higher as the following Table of Mortgage Rates from Bloomberg shows.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
America's Beleaguered Banks, Wheres the Bottom? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Michael_Pento
Investors who have been pining for a chance to buy into the beleaguered banking sector may have a bit longer to wait. Just this past Friday holders of Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC ) stock were greeted with the reporting of the company's first quarterly loss ($1.79 billion) since 1991. To make matters worse, the company cut its quarterly dividend from $.32 to $.01. The loss prompted a new rescue package totaling $138 billion, which comes on the heels of the recent round of government injected capital of $25 billion last year.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Why did Barclays' Shares Drop 25% in a Day? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Andrew_Butter
Answer: The market did not believe the valuations of assets and liabilities.
The Solution?
Well the management of Barclays went on record to say that the valuations were sound and even went so far as to pre-release their numbers. Last time I looked (early on 20th January) the shares had gone down 10% on that news.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on Sale for 12pence / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Royal Bank of Scotland's share price crashed by 66% on dreadful results. The latest crash in a string of price crashes during the past 18 months has seen RBS go from one of the worlds biggest banks priced at £7.20 per share to a penny stock that has been kept out of bankruptcy by the ever escalating scale of government capital injections and loans, with the latest cash handout taking the Governments stake to 70% and therefore defacto nationalisation of the Bank in all but name.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 24, 2008
Citibank Eight Months Later / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: James_Turk
I last wrote about Citibank eight months ago in an article entitled “Will Citibank Survive?” That article is still posted on MarketOracle.co.uk and can be read at the following link: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4088.html
To be precise, I should actually be saying “Citigroup” as the bank is only one part of this financial services behemoth. But I guess habits die hard. When I began my business career by joining a major New York City bank nearly forty years ago, banks were just that – banks. They were not the hodgepodge of businesses that many of them have become in their attempt to serve up a smorgasbord of financial services that are not necessarily interrelated.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, November 21, 2008
Citigroup Blames Short Sellers For Share Price Crash / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Citigroup is in deep trouble and here is the proof: Citigroup Said to Urge SEC to Reinstitute Ban on Short-Selling .
Citigroup Inc., which fell as much as 25 percent in New York trading today, is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to revive a prohibition on short-selling financial stocks, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, October 17, 2008
Investors Should Still Avoid Banking Stocks Despite Bailout / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
The $250 billion bank bailout announced Monday is a great improvement on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). However, for those thinking of buying bank stocks on the back of it I would point out one thing: Once the government's plan to take equity stakes in troubled financial institutions is implemented, each of the 117 million U.S. taxpayers will have an average of $2,136.76 already invested. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Wall Street Bargains Amongst Decimated and Bankrupt Banks / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon III writes: In one of its wildest and weirdest stretches ever, Wall Street entered a weekend awaiting a government bailout of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( LEH ) and exited with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. ( MER ) agreeing to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. ( BAC ) for nearly $50 billion – and Lehman announcing it will seek bankruptcy in a bid to avoid a total liquidation after it was unable to find a buyer. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Banking Stocks Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime or Capital Destroyers? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Richard_Shaw
Banks are a bundles of questions these days. We wrote on July 15 , just before the second quarter reports, that the next week would be a big week, and it certainly was.
Are the banks the buying opportunity of a lifetime, or a treacherous value trap that will destroy your capital?
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Mother of All Short Squeezes in Financial Stocks.. / Stock-Markets / Banking Stocks
By: John_Mauldin
How do you spell short-selling rally, gentle reader? In this week's Outside the Box we look at several short items (pardon the pun) from various sources, which paint a not pretty picture. The first hit my inbox this morning from Art Cashin (of CNBC fame and also Head Floor Trader for UBS).
" Deconstructing The Rally – The sharp rally that sprang from the new short sale restrictions has been spiky and, in several ways, very powerful. The impact of the short rule change was evident. As Barron's notes, the 150 stocks with the heaviest short interest rallied a stunning 15%. The stocks with the smallest short positions rose only 2%. That may be a function of existing shorts scrambling to cover to pass the new, belated, scrutiny. That thesis got added weight from a couple of areas. The Merrill Lynch results got mostly panned by several analysts and TV pundits. Nonetheless, the stock closed 24% above its lows for the week. Also, the financial sector ETF rose nearly 25% from the lows.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 18, 2008
Banking Stocks Rally is a Great Selling Opportunity! / Stock-Markets / Banking Stocks
By: Money_and_Markets
Mike here with a quick update on the so-called "big rally" in bank stocks this week.
Yes, their shares have soared for the last two days.
And yes, Wall Street is cheering.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Collapsing Bradford & Bingley Forced Bailout by Major UK Banks / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Nadeem_Walayat
As I warned on 8th and 15th of June 2008, the problems for Bradford and Bingley and its rights issue cash call were far from over and that the bank was on the brink of a
Northern rockesque style collapse with the market now extremely reluctant to entertain cash calls from banks spiraling downwards towards ZERO. The last few trading days have seen Bradford and Bingley shares collapse straight through the 55p rights issue price trading down all the way to just 30p yesterday or 45% below the rights issue price. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Financial Stocks Meltdown: A Picture Worth 1,000 Words / Stock-Markets / Banking Stocks
By: Richard_Shaw
Who a few years ago would have thought FNM and FRE would lose 70+% and 80+% of their market value?
This chart comparing the S&P 500 (SPY), the S&P Financial Sector (XLE), the KBW Large Bank Index (KBE) with FRE and FNM is breathtaking.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Banking Stocks Still Not a Buy, Heading for New Lows Into August / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Donald_W_Dony
The unprecedented decline in global financials, since early 2007, has most investors wondering when the bottom will arrive. Many world financial indexes are now sitting on half of their value from 18 months ago. Attractive fundamental valuation levels, provided by many analysts, have proven to be of little consequence since stocks have continued to waterfall 20%-40% below those 'attractive levels' and show no signs of stopping. But as many financial indexes plunge to the same levels as the 2002 bear market lows, the big question remains; when will the banks stop their fall? Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Bradford & Bingley's Dream Turns Into a Mortgage Default Nightmare / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The credit crisis continues to hit Bradford & Bingley bank that has heavy exposure to the speculative buy to let mortgage market. The bank ran a string of glossy, visually appealing TV adverts shortly following the spectacular Northern Rock collapse last September, the management tried their hardest to give assurance to the public that it was a case of business as usual for B&B. Despite many signs at the time that the number 2 slot after Northern Rock for credit crisis and housing market risk woes was reserved for Bradford & Bingley. Read full article... Read full article...