Market Currents

• Monday, December 21, 2009

• 10:50 AM E*Trade Financial (ETFC) -5.1% after naming director Robert Druskin as its new Chairman and interim CEO. E*Trade said it has "made meaningful progress" in its search for a new CEO, which it has pledged to keep separate from the Chairman role. CEO Donald Layton, set to step down at year-end, will stay on to assist Druskin until the firm finds a permanent solution. Comment!

• Thursday, November 26, 2009

• 19:46 PM Court orders (.pdf) Reserve Primary, the money-market fund that collapsed when it broke the buck, to distribute its assets equally among all shareholders - who will get at least $0.9875 on the dollar. Deutsche Bank (DB), E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) and others - which made withdrawal requests before shares broke the buck - were looking for full recovery. 2 Comments

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 09:53 AM TD Ameritrade (AMTD) CEO Fred Tomczyk says he wants to put his spare cash to work, and will even entertain a deal involving smaller rival E*Trade Financial (ETFC) under the right circumstances. The company, an aggressive acquirer over the last few years, has about $1.4B of corporate cash. Comment!

• Tuesday, October 27, 2009

• 16:21 PM E*TRADE Financial (ETFC): Q3 EPS of -$0.05 beats by $0.01. At-risk delinquenices declined by 10% and provision for loan losses decreased by $57M to $347M. Shares -3.2% AH. (PR) 5 Comments
• 00:10 AM Notable post-market earnings: ACE, AMKR, APOL, BXP, CBI, CENX, CEPH, DWA, ERTS, ETFC, FISV, HRS, IDTI, ILMN, MCK, MEE, MOLX, NLC, NSC, PNRA, PPDI, RFMD, V, VCLK Comment!

• Tuesday, September 22, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: AIG +12%. DNN +9%. KMX +7%. HL +6%. HOV +6%. M +5%. FNM +5%. FRE +5%. NG +5%. CVM +4%. CIT +4%. CCL +4%. SLW +4%. ABK +4%. SOL +4%. AUY +4%. ETFC +4%.
  Losers: FSC -6%. AMR -5%. Comment!

• Friday, September 18, 2009

• 17:24 PM A 22-year-old man has received 15 months in prison and must pay back $200,073 after trying to open more than 58,000 accounts with E-Trade (ETFC), Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Google (GOOG) in the names of characters from the King of the Hill TV show (among others). The scheme was to steal the "micro-deposits," from 1 cent to $2, that firms make to test account functionality. 9 Comments
• 15:26 PM E-Trade (ETFC +8.8%) and Charles Schwab (SCHW -0.6%) head in different directions after Goldman Sachs (GS) says to buy E-Trade as transactions ramp up, but sell Schwab, as low rates will hurt its asset management and interest-income revenue. Comment!
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ETFC +8%. IOC +8%. AXL +5%. WNR +5%. HOV +4%. AIB +4%. RAD +4%.
  Losers: FSP -11%. NMM -7%. ARNA -6%. Comment!

• Tuesday, September 15, 2009

• 08:00 AM E*Trade Financial's (ETFC +2.25% premarket) total DARTs (daily average revenue trades) for August spiked by 18.3% from July to 208,495. E*Trade says it opened 31,324 new accounts in August, while net accounts were up by 11,321. Loan delinquencies were down by 4%. (PR) Comment!

• Monday, September 14, 2009

• 09:40 AM E*Trade's (ETFC +4.8%) board approves a $150M at-the-market common share sale "to enhance liquidity for the parent company as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes." (PR) 1 Comment
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: S +21%. VM +8%. ETFC +8%. THC +8%. CMZ +4%.
  Losers: VG -6%. UIS -5%. FNM -4%. FRE -4%. Comment!

• Wednesday, September 9, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ENCO +333%. VVUS +54%. HITK +17%. TLB +11%. TITN +10%. FIG +7%. ATPG +8%. SRZ +7%. ARNA +6%. HL +4%. ETFC +4%. ABB +4%. OREX +4%.
  Losers: PBY -8%. PALM -6%. MYL -5%. LAZ -4%. 1 Comment

• Monday, August 31, 2009

• 09:14 AM Citadel does an about-face on its plan to dump up to 120M shares of E*Trade Financial (ETFC +4% premarket), saying it's in the best interest of E*Trade's shareholders. The move is likely to raise eyebrows given the nature of Citadel and its founder's relationship with E*Trade. Comment!
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: SVA +12%. BJS +11%. KFN +10%. PACR +7%. HEB +5%. ETFC +4%.
  Losers: IRE -12%. AIG -9%. AIB -8%. PNX -8%. ABK -8%. FRE -7%. CIT -7%. FNM -6%. YRCW -5%. JASO -4%. CHU -4%. BHI -4%. Comment!

• Monday, August 17, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ARIA +7%.
  Losers: IDCC -27%. RST -16%. RAS -13%. LOW -10%. ABK -10%. AXL -10%. TGB -10%. AIB -9%. FRE -9%. FNM -9%. BZH -8%. RTP -8%. YRCW -7%. CENX -7%. HL -6%. LVS -7%. NXG -7%. TCK -7%. GNW -7%. CPST -6%. FIG -6%. HD -6%. YGE -6%. HIG -6%. BCS -6%. RF -6%. LYG -6%. FCX -5%. SOL -5%. AIG -5%. MT -5%. NVAX -5%. ETFC -5%. AEG -5%. FITB -5%. HBAN -5%. ESLR -5%. RTK -5%. X -5%. CNO -5%. CS -5%. Comment!