Market Currents

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 16:36 PM The Treasury says over the next month it will auction warrants to purchase common shares in JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Capital One Financial (COF) and TCF Financial (TCF). The warrants were received in return for injected capital; each of the three has repaid the government's investment. Comment!

• Monday, November 16, 2009

• 11:12 AM Credit-card defaults fell in the U.S., but delinquencies are up across the board. Capital One (COF) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reported the biggest increases in late payments to 5.72% and 4.95%. BofA's (BAC) charge-off rate fell to 13.22% from 14.25% - still the highest among issuers. 1 Comment
• 08:50 AM Capital One's (COF) net chargeoff rate fell to 9.04% in Oct. from 9.77% in Sept. 30-days+ delinquency: 5.72% vs. 5.38% prior. (8-K) Shares +1.5% premarket. Comment!

• Friday, October 23, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: AMZN +18%. SYNA +13%. CIT +10%. MSFT +9%. COF +9%. BQI +6%. BUCY +5%. ALU +5%. FBCM +5%. RFMD +4%. CEO +4%.
  Losers: SPWRA -10%. ELN -10%. IBKR -9%. SNV -9%. BRCM -7%. BIIB -5%. AGU -4%. AIB -4%. Comment!

• Thursday, October 22, 2009

• 16:21 PM Capital One (COF): Q3 EPS of $0.94 beats by $0.80. Revenue of $$4.6B (+11.7%) vs. $4.11B. "We are successfully weathering the storm, but the storm is not over." Shares +6.2% AH. (PR) Comment!
• 09:20 AM Stock futures hovering at par just before the open. Yesterday's 11th-hour Bove selloff was on fairly heavy volume, so keep an eye open early on for follow-through. Leading indicators on deck at 10:00, along with FHFA housing index and Dept. of Labor's mass layoffs data (today's calendar). After hours, we get earnings from AMZN, AXP, COF, and more. Benchmark S&P futures flat at 1077.75. Comment!
• 00:10 AM Notable post-market earnings: AMZN, AXP, BNI, BRCM, BUCY, CA, CAKE, CB, COF, CPWR, DDR, ELX, EMN, INFA, JNPR, LEG, LSCC, NFLX, PMCS, RMBS, RVBD, SNV, SPWRA, SYNA, WDC, WFR Comment!

• Thursday, October 15, 2009

• 09:46 AM Capital One's (COF -4%) net charge-off rate - debts it believes it will never collect - rose to 9.77% in Sept. from 9.32% in Aug. Accounts at least 30 days delinquent - an indicator of future loan losses - increased to 5.38% from 5.09%. (8-K, Reuters) Comment!
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ACOR +51%. CIT +11%. PLX +7%. HEB +4%. TSEM +4%.
  Losers: MNI -15%. NOK -8%. GNBT -7%. AIB -5%. AIXG -5%. COF -5%. IRE -4%. LVS -4%. GFI -4%. HOG -4%. Comment!

• Monday, October 5, 2009

• 09:10 AM Goldman hikes the U.S. large-bank sector to Attractive, lifting Wells Fargo (WFC) to Buy and Capital One (COF) to Conviction Buy. Markets have failed to recognize "the dramatic improvement in earnings power at the large banks vs. the regionals," firm says. WFC +4.3% premarket. COF +4.7%. 1 Comment
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: VG +21%. BRCD +14%. INO +8%. VIP +7%. MTW +7%. EGI +6%. NMR +6%. HOV +5%. CNO +4%. WFC +4%. COF +4%. FNM +4%.
  Losers: none of note. Comment!

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009

• 12:53 PM Credit card stocks tick lower after the Fed proposes amendments to Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) to protect consumers from several costly practices. Among the changes: prohibiting first-year rate hikes and cards to consumers under 21, and stopping creditors from allocating payments in ways that maximize interest. COF -3.3%. V -2.5%. DFS -1.8%. AXP -0.3%. Comment!

• Wednesday, September 16, 2009

• 16:35 PM Capital One Financial (COF) CEO Richard Fairbank is buying the idea of the new consumer and says the credit-card industry will be flat, or shrink, in coming years due to the "very powerful force" of de-leveraging. "We as lenders will be paid through better credit performance." 3 Comments

• Tuesday, September 15, 2009

• 11:23 AM Capital One (COF -4.6%) takes a sudden dive after analysts at Calyon/CLSA downgrade shares to Underperform. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, September 9, 2009

• 11:44 AM Seeing a stabilizing credit-card sector, Citigroup (C) upgrades Capital One Financial (COF +5.1%) to a buy with a $44 target, and MasterCard (MA +0.8%) to hold, with a $209 target. 4 Comments

• Monday, August 24, 2009

• 09:08 AM Barclays goes bullish on U.S. credit card issuers, saying earnings will increase steadily over the next 3-5 year, and that it's encouraged by what appear to be signs of stabilization in default rates. Firm boosts American Express (AXP +2.4% premarket), Capital One (COF +2.7%) and Discover (DFS +7%) to Overweight. 10 Comments