Banking posts
FeedPosted Mar 10th 2011 12:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and Services, Management, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Wells Fargo (WFC), Chasing Value™, Comic Relief
When dealing with large companies, have you ever felt you were living through a scene from a Seinfeld episode?
In January Wells Fargo (WFC) completed a majority of its integration with Wachovia, and I fear it will take years working out the bugs in the system. I say this because I am a major client, shareholder and trader dealing with the company on numerous levels, and the past few weeks would be comedic if not so infuriating.
Continue reading Chasing Value: Wells Fargo, a Seinfeld Episode?
Posted Jan 15th 2011 10:30AM by Ted Allrich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), International Business Machines (IBM), Procter and Gamble (PG), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Comfort Zone Investing
Economies go in cycles. They push to their breaking points, then move in the opposite direction. We saw it clearly in the '90s when there was no end to up (except there was and we abruptly hit it in 2000). In 2008, it felt like there was no end to down. But we now know there is. Things are picking up, and there are numbers to prove it.
Don't be the last to figure out we're in an economic recovery. Sitting on the sidelines, waiting for one more chance to buy a stock at the bargain price you saw in March of 2009 isn't going to happen. Times have changed. The U.S. economy is on the mend.
Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Can You Feel the Pendulum Swinging?
Posted Oct 18th 2010 5:00PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, General Electric (GE), Citigroup Inc. (C)

Citigroup, Inc. (
C) is doing well today. At the time of this writing, shares were up 5% to $4.15. Volume was quite active. How should market participants view the stock? Should they be bullish or bearish?
There are a lot of opinions out there on this company. If you remember the financial crisis, then you may feel like this is a stock one should never put money in. But if you're a speculator, you probably always consider the equity as a potential vehicle for short-term gains. It's changing hands in the low single digits, and its
chart communicates many possibilities for traders.
Continue reading Citigroup Sees a Bid After Q3 Report
Posted Jul 27th 2010 10:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports

Swiss bank UBS (
UBS) reported Tuesday it
earned 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.9 billion) -- far better than the loss of 1.4 billion francs in the same quarter last year. Results also easily beat the consensus estimate. Furthermore, the company announced that it should have all the tax matters with the U.S. government settled by October.
The bank enjoyed strong performance from its investment banking sector, which saw pretax profit increase 10%. "This was a good result in volatile market conditions, and demonstrates the progress we are making," CEO Oswald Gruebel said in a
statement. "I remain confident in our future and I firmly believe that we have the right strategy in place."
Continue reading UBS Reports Stronger-Than-Expected Second-Quarter Earnings
Posted Jun 8th 2010 11:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals
Looks like UBS (UBS) isn't going to hand over files on its American clients to U.S. tax authorities.
Nationalist and left-wing lawmakers blocked a treaty with the U.S. that would have allowed UBS to hand over said files. This "treaty" was reached last August between the Swiss government and Washington in order to put to rest a disagreement about UBS's supposed role in tax evasion. The boondoggle was that the Social Democrats wanted a commitment from the government to tax bankers' bonuses and the People's Party wanted a vote against the tax before dealing with the U.S. tax treaty.
Continue reading Swiss Lawmakers Reject Deal to Name American Clients of UBS
Posted Apr 19th 2010 3:00PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C), Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

Not long ago, Citigroup (
C) was considered a has-been as investors sought out other plays in the financials, like Goldman Sachs (
GS). Of course, things can change quickly. As seen in the latest quarterly
report, Citigroup is definitely getting traction and the stock price is up 4% in today's trading. If anything, the momentum should continue.
With lots of cost-cutting, spin-offs of non-core assets and favorable interest rates, it seems like a no-brainer that Citigroup would eventually generate profits. In Q1, Citigroup posted net income of $4.43 billion, which compares to a loss of $7.58 billion in the same period a year ago.
Continue reading Citigroup Gets Its Groove Back
Posted Apr 12th 2010 9:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Economic Data, Financial Crisis

Friday marked the failure of another
bank, pushing the 2010 total to 42. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over
Beach First National Bank in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The bank had $585.1 million in assets and $516 in deposits. Bank of North Carolina, based in Thomasville, is taking over the failed bank's assets and deposits. The Beach First failure is expected to cost the FDIC $130.3 million.
A growing number of loan defaults, especially in the commercial real estate sector, have put considerable pressure on banks across the country. In fact, failures are expected to peak this year,
exceeding the 140 that occurred in 2009, which was the worst year since 1992.
Continue reading Bank Failures Hit 42, Expected to Exceed 2009's 140
Posted Apr 7th 2010 4:30PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Markets, Other Issues, Rumors, Rants and Raves, Google (GOOG), China, Scandals, Politics, Recession

The stock market has been fretting about the European Union's response to the economic calamity in Greece. That certainly is worthy of note as I have been doing the same lately, see:
Greek Debt Exposes European DisUnion. However, Greece is not the economic titan that China is.
China is a much larger concern to me because it can rock our world big-time!
As Google Inc (
GOOG) has experienced, along with other companies and the entire citizenry of China, they like their secrets, their silence, and their control. What they do not like is transparency, unfettered freedom, and distribution of information, and I doubt, your shareholder rights.
"Who is watching the store?"
Continue reading China Is a Bigger Worry Than Greece
Posted Mar 15th 2010 10:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic Data, Recession, Financial Crisis
Four more banks bit the dust last week, bringing the total to 30 -- just shy of 75 days into 2010. Regulators closed banks in New York, Florida and Louisiana, representing in aggregate nearly $1.1 billion in assets and a little over a billion dollars in deposits.
Park Avenue Bank in New York was shut down by the FDIC this week. It had $520.1 million in assets and $494.5 million in deposits as of the end of last year. Its deposits will be assumed by Valley National Bank, which is based in Wayne, New Jersey, and it will pay a small premium for them. Valley National also agreed to pick up virtually all of the bank's assets.
Continue reading 75 Days, 30 Bank Failures
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