stress test posts
FeedPosted May 8th 2009 10:10AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market Matters, Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Politics, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
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.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Put an end to the leaks
Posted May 6th 2009 4:10PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Amazon.com (AMZN), Walt Disney (DIS), Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America (BAC), Black and Decker (BDK), Garmin Ltd (GRMN), Visa Inc. (V)

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 UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Did the bears just capitulate? (GRMN, BX, V, AMZN, C, BAC, DIS)
Posted Apr 24th 2009 5:40PM by Douglas S. Roberts (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Press Releases, Market Matters, Money and Finance Today, Economic Data, Politics, Headline News, Housing, Federal Reserve, Recession, Financial Crisis
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.
Continue reading The real stress of the bank tests: Managing investor expectations!
Posted Apr 24th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), General Motors (GM), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP)

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 CallsContinue reading Closing Bell: Almost 7-weeks in a row (GM, JPM, AMZN, AXP, MSFT)
Posted Feb 25th 2009 5:20PM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Other Issues, Industry, Recession
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%.
Continue reading Stress test details reveal big risks for taxpayers