Credit Suisse
JPMorgan first to pass Fed stress testPosted by RJ and Makay on Mar 13, 2012 |
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the first bank today to announce that Federal Reserve regulators have finished stress tests of its balance sheet and approved both a dividend increase and stock buybacks. This afternoon, the Wall Street Journal issued a WSJ Markets Alert: JPMorgan, Bank of America Pass Fed’s Stress Tests. JPMorgan said that it will up its quarterly dividend by 5 cents, to 30 cents, and buy back up to $12 billion of stock this year.
Investor perception that the U.S. housing market may be on the rebound is supporting renewed interest in once-toxic mortgage bonds that were at the center of the financial crisis, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Some distressed mortgage-backed bonds have registered double-digit percentage gains this year. The rally has brought investors back to a market sector that was ravaged between 2007 and 2009.
Banks around the world may slash an additional 100,000 jobs this year, according to Meredith Whitney, chief executive officer of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC. Whitney shared her views yesterday with radio hosts Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt on the Bloomberg Surveillance show. Worldwide, banks lost well over 200,000 jobs in 2011, and this year “stands more of a chance to be a repeat” of 2011, she said.
