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Bonds Are a 'Safe' Investment: A Big Lie Gets Even BiggerThe 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
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-27-2008 @ 11:09AM
Vera Salmons said...
MY Husband & I are in a mess with whachovia bank, with a mortgage, that never should of been aproved. We are both 76 and are mtg is 12.00 per month.are taxes are not included. We pay 650.00 every 3 months,plus insurance. Are current income is 3300.00 a month total.I have been begging them to somehow lower the payment to 800.00, this is since jan ,but they so far have not done anything but harrasse me daily.so I sent them 800.00 & will send the same next week when are social security & pension come.The house is no where near what they appraised it for 173 and they never even took a, fiancial statement,when they gave us that mtg.now they are asking for all are financial for the past 4 years,is that to cover themselves? I just dont know what to do,so I guess at 76 we will be homeless and in forclosure. Thankyou for reading this.
2-27-2008 @ 1:02AM
mark said...
why is it always someone elses fault?
1-22-2008 @ 1:34PM
Americas Watchdog said...
We have the Corporate Whistleblower Center & the National Mortgage Complaint Center & while we seem to be in a moment of total glee because Uncle Ben at the Fed just lowered rates 75 basis points................don't for one minute think its over.
Both of these banks will report the same types of bad news in the 1st quarter of 2008, as will most other banks, homebuilders & investment bankers, etc.
Watching CNBC this morning we heard sub-prime mentioned about 2 million times. (IDIOTS!!!!!)
Folks its not about sub-prime, its about equity. Those who purchased real estate from 2003-2006 bought a pipe dream that was over-valued by at least 20%. Those who held, are now down 20% or more. The banks or mortgage bankers who did the deals................... sold our pension funds a security that was worth .80 cents not a buck. This is what the world markets are waking up to. We are still in the initial stages of our hang over from the non stop three year free drink real estate happy hour from 2003-2006. What the Fed did today is meaningless. It will not restore values that were never there in the first place.
Some guys collect baseball cards, we collect conference call transcripts. If any of you think CEO's are bad now..........wait till we start quoting CEO's on their conference calls to the street!
Bob Big Tex Builder----June 2005-----"We think Las Vegas is the perfect place to tie up our horse the shareholder for a while". What Big Tex Bob failed to mention was Las Vegas peaked in early 2005. We are finding the same true of big banks (2005)..................."Gee these pay option ARM's are real good looking on the bottom line. As long as the national real estate markets keep on going up 15% a year, everyone wins".
This mess is going to get so bad its beyond comprehension.