Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) started today's trading with a resounding thud after announcing a $1.25 billion stock offering. The regional banking issue said it will offer $1 billion in common shares and $250 million in new convertible preferred shares. The proceeds will address roughly half of the $2.5 billion in capital Regions was instructed to raise by the U.S. Treasury Department following its stress test results.

Despite a negative start to the session, RF has since ticked fractionally higher. The security has shed more than 34% of its value in 2009, and it's currently struggling under the weight of resistance from its 32-week moving average. Since 2007, RF has managed to notch just one weekly close above this steadily descending trendline.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says they tainted a good series of bank tests.

Sometimes the playing field is so unlevel that it makes no sense to play. That's how I felt about these leaks.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) (Cramer's Take) went from being "Mr. Clean" on Wednesday to "Mr. Dirty" on Thursday. The company went from having bountiful equity that drove the stock up a point, to needing bountiful equity, which it filed for Thursday night. No apologies from anyone, not the leakers or the leakees. I never heard or read the phrase "it was incorrectly reported" even though that was totally the case.

Same with State Street (NYSE: STT) (Cramer's Take). Here's one that went from needing capital, to not needing capital, to needing capital, and then to having too much capital so it can start paying back the TARP funds all in one 24-hour news cycle.

Today was the day that the stress test results leaked out, showing many banks needed to raise capital. That had no negative impact as the numbers could have been much worse, and this notion may have dealt a final blow to the bears betting that the financials (and market) were going to tank lower on bad news.

Stronger than expected ADP jobs data came out ahead of this week's unemployment report and helped. Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,513.95 +103.30 (1.23%)
S&P 500 919.42 +15.62 (1.73%)
Nasdaq 1,759.10 +4.98 (0.28%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

If you have been waiting and hoping for a pullback of any size, the moves here are probably starting to make as much sense as using the notion that you should buy just because a company is keeping the same dividend it has always had. The markets screamed higher again today on the heels of some very solid housing data and that has the bulls firmly in charge again. In turn, market bears are becoming about as popular today as management of troubled banks. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,410.81 +198.40 (2.42%)
S&P 500 907.24 +29.72 (3.39%)
Nasdaq 1,763.56 +44.36 (2.58%)

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

We are getting our first official information about the Bank Stress Test with the release of the White Paper detailing the assumptions behind how the stress tests were conducted. This is the initial step in a process culminating in the release of results for the individual banks.

In this case, the process may be more important than the result. We all know the results in advance. Secretary Geithner has already told us that most banks have already passed in previous speeches. I doubt that the government would announce with major fanfare that the American financial system is insolvent. There are two major issues regarding investor expectations that have to be addressed: credibility and panic.

Today was a strange day. Durable goods gave little hope and housing data was also lackluster. Yet when you beat lowered estimates that is often enough. The government's "stress tests" look more like a baseline test for the banks.

Had the DJIA closed a penny above the 8,131.33 level, that would have marked a 7-week rally. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,075.09 +118.03 (1.48%)
S&P 500 866.06 +14.14 (1.66%)
Nasdaq 1,694.29 +42.08 (2.55%)

Top Analyst Calls

More of the details of the so-called stress test is seeping out into the public. And combined with more information about the next round of taxpayer investment in zombie banks, the picture is ugly. To get lending going again, it would be better to create new banks. And to clean up toxic waste, we could let the FDIC buy the bad loans out of mortgage-backed securities.

The stress test involves calculating the change in a bank's tangible common equity -- what's left over after selling a bank's assets and then paying off its liabilities under two scenarios. The base case scenario is that GDP falls 2% in 2009, unemployment rises to 8.4% and home prices plunge 14%. And the "adverse" scenario assumes GDP slumps 3.3% in 2009, unemployment climbs to 8.9%, and home prices tumble 22%.