Close but no cigar for the S&P 500. The index remains three points below its all-time closing high of 1565, having gained 0.5 per cent on Thursday amid another round of improved jobless claims data, and energy stocks rallying on natural gas prices (Wall Street Journal).
Average weekly new jobless claims have now fallen to their lowest level in to five years (Financial Times, Reuters).
JPMorgan hid its Whale losses and "misled investors" over the trades, a Senate subcommittee has alleged. The 300-page bipartisan report into failures at JPMorgan's chief investment office said that "the written and verbal representations made by the bank were incomplete, contained numerous inaccuracies, and misinformed investors, regulators, and the public." The Senate panel will tomorrow press the bank on whether the trades were genuine hedges of credit risk. Jamie Dimon was "already in possession of information about the . . . complex and sizeable portfolio" when he dismissed reports of trouble in the CIO as a tempest in a teapot, the report adds (Financial Times, Senate report).
Goldman and JPMorgan must resubmit their capital plans to the Fed despite winning its overall approval for payments to shareholders under the last CCAR exercise. The Fed found "weaknesses" within the two banks' capital planning processes. Ally Financial and BB&T were the only two lenders of 14 to have their plans objected to outright (Financial Times).
Banks set out their plans to return capital post-CCAR. Bank of America announced plans to buy back $5bn of common shares and $5.5bn in preferred stock (BofA release). Wells Fargo rolled out a $0.30 per share dividend (Wells Fargo). JPMorgan said it would repurchase $6bn in common shares and would raise its dividend to $0.38 a share (JPMorgan).
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- Tim Geithner's book deal? May contain expletives.
- "Luckily my grandfather hasn't asked me yet if he should buy high yield bonds..."
- The great European corporate exodus to China?
- How financial crisis really can mean civil war.
- The mourning for Google Reader continues.
