Don’t Put Too Much Stock In Alcoa For Earnings Season Insight (Forbes)
Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) will provide the informal kickoff to first-quarter earnings season Monday afternoon as the first Dow Jones industrial average component to report figures for the January-March period. But investors shouldn’t count on the aluminum producer’s results as any kind of crystal ball for the rest of Corporate America’s report cards. FactSet’s John Butters looked back at the last 10 years of quarterly earnings, and found that whether Alcoa beats or falls short of the Street’s consensus estimate is hardly predictive of the broader market’s performance over the following three months.
JPMorgan Works to Shore Up Support for Dimon (The New York Times)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) board members plan to meet with some big shareholders to make their case that Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, should remain its chairman as well, Susanne Craig and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report in DealBook. The campaigning is unusually proactive this year, shareholders say, reflecting fears within JPMorgan that investors may be dissatisfied with management after last year’s multibillion-dollar trading debacle.
Wells Fargo: Earnings Slowdown Threat Overblown (Seeking Alpha)
With first quarter earnings just around the corner, analysts on Wall Street are happy to prognosticate and offer the insight they have to the investing community. With Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) set to release its report first among the big banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) analyst Vivek Juneja is out with his relatively cautious note on the residential mortgage king. Juneja’s premise is that since WFC is so reliant on the mortgage market, where it generates a disproportionate amount of its revenue and enjoys overwhelming market share, it is also subject to a material slowdown in earnings growth as a confluence of events sets in motion a slowdown in refinances and new purchases.
Trueheart protests Rite Aid for “holding up” Howard Park supermarket (Baltimore Brew)
Neighborhood activist Kim Trueheart yesterday commenced a one-woman protest against Rite Aid Pharmacy, positioning herself outside the chain’s store at 3804 Liberty Heights Avenue with a home-made sign and a pitch: “Sir, please don’t go in there. Don’t give these people your money,” she said, going on the explain the purpose of the boycott. Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) owns a restrictive covenant on a now-city-owned parcel that is part of the planned ShopRite Supermarket 10 blocks to the north.
JPMorgan Forecasts European CLO Sales of as Much as $5 Billion (Bloomberg)
Collateralized loan obligations will raise $3 billion to $5 billion in Europe this year, according to a forecast from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). CLO formation in the region will increase global issuance to as much as $75 billion, JPMorgan analysts led by London-based Rishad Ahluwalia wrote in an April 5 report.
Wells Fargo donates $240,000 to East Bay public education (The Daily Californian)
Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) presented $240,000 in donations Tuesday to 15 educational foundations and endowments from the East Bay at the Alameda County Office of Education. The educational foundations included the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which received $15,000, and the Oakland Schools Foundation, which received the largest grant of $50,000, according to Wells Fargo Assistant Vice President of Communications Mariana Phipps. The amount granted to each foundation or endowment was based on Wells Fargo’s assessment of the resources needed by the school districts that each foundation funds, Phipps added.
U.S. Stocks Decline as Investors Await Alcoa’s Earnings (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks fell, after the biggest weekly drop of the year for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors awaited Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)’s financial release to mark the beginning of the earnings season. Johnson & Johnson declined 1.9 percent after…
…JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) cut the stock’s rating. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BCRX) surged 20 percent as China expedited the approval of its anti- influenza drug Peramivir. Lufkin Industries Inc., a maker of oil-well pumps, jumped 38 percent as General Electric Co. (GE) agreed to buy the company.
Today’s Mortgage Rates: Wells Fargo Refinance Mortgage Rates for April 8, 2013 (Eastern Morning Herald)
Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is a top bank in the United States offering several options for home refinancing. The bank takes in loans with conforming balances, larger amounts, and jumbo balances. It also offers loans that are insured by the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) for borrowers with low credit scores. The 30-year fixed rate home refinance mortgage for conforming loan balances carries a mortgage rate of 3.5% and an APR (annual percentage rate) of 3.663%, unchanged from Friday’s rates. The 30-year fixed rate FHA-backed loan for conforming amounts is quoted at an interest rate of 3.25% and a corresponding APR of 4.324%, same as the previous quotes.
NY attorney general says JPMorgan wrong in claiming case was filed too late (Thomson Reuters News & Insight)
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman defended his $22.5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in the face of the bank’s claims that the mortgage-backed securities case was brought too late and and was too vague to go forward. In a filing late Friday in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Schneiderman said the nation’s largest bank was wrong when it argued the case was defective and should be dismissed because it was filed after a three-year statute of limitations. Schneiderman said New York law gives the attorney general six years to file investor fraud claims under the Martin Act, a securities fraud statute. He also said the complaint included the necessary particulars to pursue the claims.
