"Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) absolutely surprised Wall Street, which had downbeat expectations for lower earnings," reports Richard Rhodes, trading expert and editor of The Rhodes Report.

"WFC earned $1.75 billion or $0.53/share for the April to June period, which is down just a bit from $2.28 billion or $0.67 per share for the same period last year. Provisions for credit losses were $3 billion, which included increase in reserves for future losses of $1.5 billion.

"But what really surprised the market was that fact that WFE raised their quarterly dividend to $0.34/share per quarter from $0.31, a near +10% increase. In a world where most, if not all, banks are raising capital and slashing dividends - WFC sees fit to stand on the Left Coast and shout that 'all is fine in the water, come on in!'

"This should support the banking community today, which given yesterday's better-than-expected earnings out of First Horizon (NYSE: FHN), has tended to cause a bit of short covering in the banks.

"In our view, this will be a large test for the banking sector. We are interested in how it trades today given the good WFC news - WFC is higher by nearly +10% as we finish up writing, for if they can rally and hold their gains, we are apt to put on an aggressive long position to capture a sharper short covering rally that may cause value managers to 'dip their toe' into the water and become buyers.

"Expectations have been inordinately low; the regional banks are showing there are managing their businesses relatively well."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

Wells Fargo (WFC): Beating expectations originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Richard Rhodes, professional trader, money manager and editor of The Rhodes Report was one advisor who accurately forecast the recent decline and moved into short positions going into this past week.

And while he sees the potential for a near-term bounce, this week's action leads the advisor to say, "A major trading high has formed, which will lead to a -10% to -20% correction...perhaps deeper."

He explains, "If there was ever a 'bell' to signal the end of an intermediate or long-term rally; we think the decline from the S&P 500 high of 1565 to yesterday's low at 1465 suffices as such."

The constriction of credit and liquidity, he notes, has led to very poor advance/decline figures. As such, he suggests being a seller during any rallies that result fro the "month-end bullish pattern and short-term oversold condition."

Indeed, even in his Long Only Portfolio - a portfolio that as its name implies only holds long position - he now says, "We are going to a very rare, but very prudent 'no position' stance." As for his Long/Short Portfolio, he says, "We are now aggressively short."

Continue reading Trader sees 10% to 20% decline

Trader sees 10% to 20% decline originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.