riverpirate

Wells Fargo Lays Bear Trap on Wall Street

While the dividend move was questionable, one thing is for sure, Wells is not in the same boat -- not even in the same ocean -- as IndyMac, CFC, and Bear Sterns. Be careful what you shorties focus on was the message, loud and clear. While the apacolypse-wishers focus on the 265m affected by the change to 180 days, the smart money doesn't turn a blind eye to the very high Tier 1 capital they have and the fact that the bank is highly diversified, they aren't a one-trick pony by any means.

Also, they have always been the most vigorous managers of credit quality in their peer group, by a long shot. It's not so hard to believe that they are faring the best (sans USB) out of the banks when the have consistently had the best counterparty rating of any domestic bank, period.

A lot of banks are in serious trouble. Well's trouble isn't THAT serious, and they wanted to let you know that, shortie, very emphatically, so that you wouldn't sully their reputation and ruin their access to capital.