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Bank of America, Wachovia earnings plunge

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The Associated Press reports that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) both banked badly in the fourth quarter -- seeing profits plunge 95% and 98% -- respectively.

Here're are the lowlights:

  • Bank of America: Net income fell to $268 million, or 5 cents per share, in the fourth quarter from $5.26 billion, or $1.16 per share in Q4 2006.
  • Wachovia: Net income fell to $51 million, or 3 cents per share, from $2.3 billion, or $1.20 per share, in Q4 2006.

The culprit? Bloomberg News blames home loan write-downs for Wachovia's bad numbers. Wachovia's provision for credit losses rose to $1.5 billion from $408 million on September 30. And Bloomberg News fingers $5.28 billion in mortgage-related write-down as reason for Bank of America's poor results. Some good news for Bank of America: it had a pretax gain of $2 billion from its holding in Visa Inc., the credit-card network that's planned an initial public offering for later this quarter. We'll see.

Bank of America is down 5.5% in pre-market while Wachovia is a mere 3.6% lower.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits . He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

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Last updated: November 26, 2009: 05:34 PM

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