The Market Is Down on News from…Slovakia?

The stock market looks to open lower this morning. Once again, investors are looking at events in Europe. Each country needs to approve a deal to increase the size of the European bailout fund. The only country left is Slovakia. I can’t remember the last time investors in the U.S. were concerned about events in Slovakia, but here we are.

After today’s close, Alcoa ($AA) will be the first major company to report earnings. Wall Street expects 22 cents per share compared with nine cents one year ago.

Interestingly, while many large “capital markets” banks are feeling the squeeze, many retails banks are doing quite well. Goldman Sachs ($GS) may report a quarterly loss in a few days, but banks like Wells Fargo ($WFC) are thriving. Every stock in the KBW Bank Index ($BKX) is down for the year.

On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase ($JPM) will report its third-quarter earnings. Here are some interesting comments from Bloomberg:

The split between Wall Street businesses and other types of banking will be demonstrated by JPMorgan, the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets. The New York-based company will report 95 cents of earnings per share for the quarter, just 6 percent lower than a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Those earnings, the lowest in six quarters, may reflect gains in consumer lending and credit-card revenue as well as declines at the investment bank. James Staley, 54, who runs the investment bank, said at an investor presentation on Sept. 13 that “markets revenue” will decline about 30 percent from the second quarter and that fees from investment banking will be about $1 billion.

Posted by on October 11th, 2011 at 9:38 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

Tickers: , ,