The financial sector of the U.S. market has seen its ups and downs over the last several years, tumbling after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and staging a remarkable rally during the final three quarters of 2009. Although it has been a long road from this dark point, recent years have seen numerous banks and financial companies make strong rebounds, helping to pave the way to recovery for the entire economy. But markets are still not up to pre-recession levels, and another boost from the financial sector would go a long ways towards reclaiming levels not touched in several years. As we officially kick off earnings season this week, investors will look to the various financial firms to report their most recent fiscal quarter’s earnings. Last week saw JP Morgan Chase crush the Street estimates, while yesterday brought bad news from Citigroup, which fell short of estimates. Today will see another bellwether report, with U.S. Bancorp releasing their earnings before market open, potentially tipping the scales towards the bullishness of JP Morgan or the gloomy outlook of Citi [see also Regional Bank ETFs: Head-To-Head].
[click to continue…]
This earnings season, which many analysts have called the most important in decades, has certainly had its shares of disappointments. Boeing reported a larger-than-expected loss and reduced its full year guidance to levels more than 40% below Wall Street expectations. AMR, parent of American Airlines, reported a huge loss, hurt by a tough environment and [...]
Earnings season surprises continued on Thursday, with strong reports from Travelers, 3M, and McDonald’s contributing to a rally in U.S. equity markets. The Dow reclaimed the 10,000 level that it crossed just last week for the first time in a year. The ETFdb 60 Index, a benchmark designed to measure the performance of a variety [...]
When the U.S. financial sector experienced an unprecedented meltdown and set off a global recession, many investor wondered just how far financial stocks would slide. After struggling to find a bottom for nearly two years, many financials ETFs have found their footing since hitting market lows in March, posting solid gains for the year. But [...]
When the financial bomb went off in the fall of 2008, it damaged or destroyed nearly everything in its path. Banking stocks (and banking ETFs) were near the epicenter of the blast, and therefore suffered significant damage. But even within the banking sector, there is a huge discrepancy in the returns generated by various types [...]
Over the past year, the financial sector has been a favorite target of criticisms, frequently accused of outrageous greed that sparked the mortgage meltdown in the U.S., eventually spreading to nearly all corners of the global economy. Moreover, the volatility of financial companies has skyrocketed, perhaps best evidenced by the fact that Direxion’s 3x leveraged Daily [...]
Late Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Treasury Department released the much-awaited results of the government’s “stress tests” on 19 of the nation’s largest banks. Among the big names instructed to raise capital: Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and GMAC. In all, the government’s results indicate that 10 of the banks tested need to raise [...]
