Let's go back to the financial crisis and the practices that brought this country to its knees. Banks developed a fancy scheme whereby they absolved themselves of all risk from the loans they made. They simply wrapped them up in a bundle and sold them to someone else. What they were doing is essentially packaging and reselling "junk."

When the news of how bad things were became known, the markets froze and collapsed. No one knew who had which securities, and if they did, they didn't know their true value.

Wells Fargo (WFC) was one of the banks to emerge the strongest after the financial crisis. As capital markets improve, we foresee Wells benefiting from and a greater presence than it had pre-recession relative to peers like Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and UBS (UBS).

Here we look at the key factors to watch in the coming months that support our $33.81 price estimate, which is around 10% ahead of the market price.

U.S. Bancorp (USB) has approved a 150% increase in the dividend rate on U.S. Bancorp common stock to 50 cents on an annualized basis, or 12.5 cents on a quarterly basis. April and June option implied volatility of 30 is near its 26-week average of 29, according to Track Data, suggesting nondirectional price movement.

Wells Fargo (WFC) announced a special Q1 cash dividend on its common stock of 7 cents per share, together with the 5 cent per share dividend. April put option implied volatility is at 33, July is at 35, near its 26-week average of 34, according to Track Data, suggesting nondirectional price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

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.

Analyst Upgrades

• Wells Fargo (WFC) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Adobe (ADBE) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Vail Resorts (MTN) and Goldcorp (GG) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• OmniVision (OVTI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Penn Virginia (PVA) to hold from sell at Canaccord.
• Hub Group (HUBG) to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.

The past week's data-point-of-consequence for investors had to be investment decisions by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).

Buffett ended positions in several stocks in the fourth quarter, including the Bank of America (BAC), Nike (NKE), Fiserv (FISV), Becton Dickinson (BDX), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Lowe's Co.s (LOW), Nalco (NLC) and Nestle (NSRGY), according to a filing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Berkshire added to a holding of only one stock in the fourth quarter: Wells Fargo (WFC).

JPMorgan (JPM) is one the largest and most diversified bank in the U.S., and offers services such as retail banking, commercial banking, asset management, investment banking, consumer lending and credit cards. Its main competitors include Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

JPMorgan has benefited from a decline in provisions for credit losses that raised operating margins for its retail banking business. However, a weak economic recovery has resulted in a decline in average interest earning deposits and presents a potential concern for the multinational bank.

Today was a strange day marked by selling in technology and an almost gain in the DJIA. Many key technology stocks sold off as currencies weighed. Much of the media coverage surrounded President Hu's visit from China in D.C. today. Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,825.29 -12.64 (-0.11%)
S&P 500 1,281.92 -13.10 (-1.01%)
Nasdaq 2,725.36 -40.49 (-1.46%)

Wednesday morning, banking giant Wells Fargo (WFC) announced that its fourth-quarter profit increased sharply thanks to improving customer payment habits and lower reserves to cover "souring loans."

During the quarter, Wells Fargo reported net income of 61 cents per share ($3.2 billion), matching the consensus estimate. A year earlier, the company earned 8 cents per share ($394 million) thanks to a large preferred dividend paid to the government (this payment was not necessary this year). The bank's CEO John Stumpf stated that the bank's business segments "contributed to earnings as the economy started to gain strength."

The earnings season ramps up this week. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters foresee strong reports from such big names as Apple (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), IBM (IBM), General Electric (GE), Google (GOOG), Schlumberger (SLB) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). And fast on the heels of last week's big earnings beat from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), there will be plenty more results from the financial sector to peruse this week.

Among the financials expected to post double-digit earnings growth this week are Capital One Financial (COF), Morgan Stanley (MS), SLM Corp. (SLM) and U.S. Bancorp (USB), but the week's biggest earnings winner may be Wells Fargo (WFC).

To paraphrase Mark Twain "The reports of our death are greatly exaggerated". The world economy has been in shambles for a few years now, and our nation has much work ahead of it. 2010 was an improvement over 2009 and I believe 2011 will show further improvement.

There are lots of ideas running through my mind as I consider where the economy might be heading in 2011. What opportunities lay in front of us waiting to be picked up or passed over? Just five trading days left, and market activity will slow down except among fund managers making adjustments for tax purposes or window dressing. You should examine your tax situation, too.

Banks could face another mortgage crisis, according to Barron's, if they are forced to buy back subprime, Alt-A and options adjusted home mortgage securities they've sold prior to the financial crisis, mostly as mortgage-backed securities. Already some buyers, like Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC), have enjoyed some success returning defective mortgages. And this could be just the beginning.

The banks, of course, are fighting vigorously to fend off these demands. As usual, the courts will have to settle the matter. The focus of the debate seems to be founded on the issue of representations and warranties that may or may not have been violated.

There are no surprises among the 11 banks mentioned. It is the conspicuous absence of names you might expect to find that is.

Investors took yesterday's drop as an opportunity. The new consensus is that the double-dip recession scenario is gone and that quantitative easing will also still occur. The dollar gave back on some of yesterday's gains, and that helped gold and oil and related assets. Then the Fed's Beige Book acted like a "economic upgrade" from the Fed.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA
NASDAQ
S&P500

Top Analyst Calls

Boeing (BA) is expected to report Q3 EPS on October 20. November put option implied volatility is at 33, January is at 34, versus its 26-week average of 32, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional near-term price movement.

Wells Fargo (WFC) is reporting Q3 EPS on October 20. November put option implied volatility is at 43, January is at 40, versus its 26-week average of 36, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Bank of America (BAC), which recently announced it would halt foreclosures nationwide, is scheduled to discuss its third-quarter 2010 financial results Tuesday, October 19, in a conference call beginning at 8:30 AM (ET). You can catch a live webcast of the call at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America continued it mortgage modification efforts and declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for the leading lender to report that its earnings for that period were 16 cents per share, compared to a loss of 26 cents per share a year ago. Revenue is expected to total $27.2 billion, which is a 4.3% increase from the same period of last year.