JLarkin

Wells Fargo and US Bancorp - Hitch a Ride with These Two

"These regional banks are generally more attractive currently - provided that their bad assets are under control and that they operate in an economically attractive part of the country"

Martin, you don't mention the fact that commercial real estate (CRE) is now starting to fall off a cliff. It has typically lagged residential real estate by several months. Many cities have 20% vacancy downtown with *more* high rises coming on line in 2009. CRE is going to get very ugly. Regional banks are large holders of CRE loans, and they are about to see record rates of default in 2009-2010. See the calculatedrisk.com blog for the data.

Secondly, what about credit card defaults? Those are now rising and will likely get to very high levels in 2010. I would be very cautious about holding bank stocks for the long term. Day trading is a different story.