Market Currents

• Wednesday, December 2, 2009

• 09:38 AM Credit Suisse upgrades regional banks (STI, BBT), saying loan-loss provisions are set to peak this quarter and non-performing loan levels will peak in the next. "With 75% upside and 25% downside on average, we believe investors should be forward-looking and use attractive valuation and weak price action around the Q4 'kitchen sink' results to overweight the regional banks," firm says. BBT +1.9% early on. STI +1.5%. Comment!
• 08:56 AM U.S. bank stocks face above-average risks, Citigroup says, recommending investors "remain very selective" and focus on banks "that have strong capital positions, while avoiding banks with the combination of relatively high commercial real estate exposure and questionable capital strength." Citi's choice banks: BBT, FITB, BAC, STI. Duds: ZION, RF, KEY. 4 Comments

• Thursday, October 22, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: HTE +33%. SDXC +26%. JCG +13%. FFIV +11%. LOGI +8%. KOG +8%. PNC +6%. ALXN +6%. BQI +5%. CELG +4%. KMB +4%. STI +4%.
  Losers: TQNT -20%. NCR -11%. ERIC -8%. ADS -8%. TEX -7%. BG -6%. RFMD -5%. EQIX -4%. Comment!
• 06:11 AM SunTrust Banks (STI): Q3 EPS of -$0.60 misses by $0.05. Revenue of $1.94B (-21%) vs. $2.11B. Earnings include $131M writedown on debt. Allowance for loan losses +128M to $3.02B. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: AUO, BDK, BG, BMY, CBE, CELG, CHKP, CIT, CNX, DAL, DHR, DO, DOW, EMC, ERIC, ESV, ETR, FITB, GR, HBAN, HOT, HSY, JBLU, JNS, KMB, LCC, LH, LM, MCD, MJN, MMM, MRK, NCR, NIHD, NUE, NVS, NYT, ORI, OXY, PDS, PLD, PM, PNC, POT, R, RAI, RGC, RS, RTN, RX, SGP, STI, SY, T, TASR, TIN, TMO, TRA, TRV, UNP, UPS, XRX, ZMH Comment!

• Wednesday, July 22, 2009

• 06:25 AM SunTrust Banks (STI): Q2 EPS of -$0.41 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $2.2B (-15.6%) in-line. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Wednesday's open: AAI, APD, ATI, BA, BK, DAL, ENTG, GENZ, GNTX, HST, ITW, KEY, LLY, MO, MS, NITE, NTRS, PDS, PEP, PFE, SEIC, STI, STJ, SU, TCB, USB, USG, WFC, WHR Comment!

• Monday, June 1, 2009

• 07:58 AM SunTrust Banks (STI) is selling $1.4B of common stock and starting a $1B buyback of preferred shares and hybrid securities. Proceeds will be used to boost SunTrust's Tier 1 capital and fulfill stress test requirements. Shares -3.2% premarket. Comment!

• Thursday, May 7, 2009

• 17:43 PM Here's a bank by bank list of capital buffer shortfall, or lack thereof (source):
  American Express (AXP): $0
  Bank of America (BAC): $33.9B
  BB&T (BBT): $0
  Bank of New York Mellon (BK): $0
  Capital One (COF): $0
  Citigroup (C): $5.5B
  Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): $1.1B
  GMAC: $11.5B
  Goldman Sachs (GS): $0
  JPMorgan (JPM): $0
  KeyCorp (KEY): $1.8B
  MetLife (MET): $0
  Morgan Stanley (MS): $1.8B
  PNC Financial (PNC): $0.6B
  Regions Financial (RF): $2.5B
  State Street (STT): $0
  SunTrust Banks (STI): $2.2B
  U.S. Bancorp (USB): $0
  Wells Fargo (WFC): $13.7B 4 Comments

• Tuesday, May 5, 2009

• 09:51 AM After replicating the government's stress tests, FBR's Paul Miller says 11 of the 12 (BAC, WFC, C, PNC, USB, COF, STI, RF, BBT, FITB, KEY) commercial banks being examined will have to raise additional equity, with JPMorgan (JPM) the only exception. Earlier, Miller said 14 of the 19 firms being tested would need to raise capital, and warned markets may be underestimating the sums needed. 3 Comments

• Monday, April 27, 2009

• 09:02 AM Premarket losers on swine-flu speculation: FEED -14%. RCL -13%. SFD -13%. LCC -11%. AMR -10%. CAL -9%. UAUA -9%. CCL -9%. DAL -8%. LVS -7%. MGM -5%. JBLU -5%. HST -5%.
  Other premarket losers: MTL -7%. EGLE -7%. CIT -6.5%. RF -6%. AIG -5%. STI -5%. HBAN -5%. STO -5%. HBC -5%. DRYS -4%. C -4%. BAC -4%. ABB -4%. WFFC -4%. FCX -4%. Comment!

• Thursday, April 23, 2009

• 07:15 AM SunTrust Banks (STI): Q1 EPS of -$0.46 beats by $0.19. Revenue of $2.24B (+16.3%) vs. $2.06B. Majority of loss was due to a $715M goodwill impairment charge. Tier-1 ratio estimated at 11%, up 13 points from last quarter. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: ABC, ALXN, AN, AVT, BDK, BG, BLL, CBE, CIT, CLS, CME, CNX, COP, CP, DHR, DO, EMC, ESI, ESV, EXC, FITB, GMT, GR, HSY, IGT, IVZ, JNS, LCC, LLL, MAR, MI, NCR, NCX, NIHD, NOV, NUE, OMTR, OXY, PENN, PM, PNC, POT, RCL, RS, RSH, RTN, RX, SCG, SEIC, SIAL, STI, SU, SVU, TCB, TMO, UNP, UPS, ZMH 1 Comment

• Tuesday, April 21, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ELX +43%. THC +23%. COH +8%. HOGS +7%. GM +5%. UNH +4%.
  Losers: ZION -24%. HBAN -23%. FITB -16%. NTRS -14%. KEY -12%. BJS -12%. RF -12%. MGM -11%. ETFC -11%. IFX -11%. BAC -10%. BRCM -9%. BK -9%. C -8%. DT -8%. STT -8%. LVS -7%. DOW -6%. APOL -6%. STI -6%. COF -5%. PUK -5%. HIG -5%. CAT -5%. PNC -5%. Comment!

• Monday, April 6, 2009

• 09:45 AM Reputed bank analyst Mike Mayo hits banks with an Underweight rating, saying he sees loan losses exceeding levels seen during the Great Depression. "New government actions might not help as much as expected, especially given that loans have been marked down to only $0.98 on the dollar," he says. Banks are down across the board. PNC -7%. STI -7%. WFC -5%. C -5%. BAC -4%. MS -4%. USB -4%. GS -4%. JPM -3%. 1 Comment
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: IFX +15%. SAY +13%. DNDN +12%. SLM +8%. RFMD +6%. MGM +5%. CNO +5%. LVLT +5%. GM +5%. CENX +5%.
  Losers: JAVA -22%. RTP -10%. CBST -6%. UBS -7%. HL -6%. USB -6%. CDE -5%. BCS -5%. DB -5%. MT -4%. ETFC -4%. FITB -4%. BHP -4%. WFC -4%. STI -4%. GNW -4%. HIG -4%. BAC -4%. RDS.A -4%. MTL -4%. 1 Comment