- More confidence that rates are rising for real this time, "wide-sweeping" regulatory changes to come, and a better FICC environment have analyst Brian Kleinhanzi upgrading Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS +0.9%) to Outperform from Market Perform.
- Kleinhanzi keeps JPMorgan (JPM +0.8%) and Bank of New York (BK +0.2%) at Outperform.
- Turning to regional banks, KBW boosts its estimates for 2017 and 2018 for the large players, and upgrades Citizens Financial (CFG +1.9%) and Comerica (CMA +1.6%) to Outperform, while downgrading KeyCorp (KEY +0.3%) and PNC (PNC -0.2%) to Market Perform. The switch comes as KBW turns its focus on those lenders best positioned for a rising rate environment, and from regulatory relief, not to mention other levers should rates not rise.
- Source: Bloomberg