3 Things That Could Move Financial Stocks Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Wednesday brings a swath of economic data, including the ADP National Employment report and Challenger Jobs Report before the bell. Companies are expected to have added 200,000 jobs according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com.

The Challenger job cuts report could point to additional trends in layoffs in the financial sector. The outplacement firm said last month that layoffs in the financial sector and government services contributed to 41% of the total announced job losses in 2011.

Bank of America(BAC) is in the midst of cutting 30,000 jobs. Citigroup(C) is right-sizing its businesses by reducing its headcount by about 5,000 jobs. Morgan Stanley(MS) said it would lay off 1,600 employees by the first quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, small wall street firms are shutting shop including Ticonderoga Securities and Kaufman Brothers, adding to the layoff pool.

More broadly, a better-than-expected jobs report could lift bank stocks, as they are highly sensitive to the economy. The mortgage bankers association also reports application data for the week, which could be another data point to watch for bank stocks.

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Facebook is widely expected to file its S-1 on Wednesday and investors will finally learn if Morgan Stanley managed to beat Goldman Sachs(GS) as lead underwriter.

If Morgan Stanley does win the mandate, it would further seal its position as the number one choice for tech companies going public and may signal that even with its alleged outsized access and "vampire squid" like grip on the capital markets, Goldman Sachs doesn't always win.

On Tuesday, IFR reported that Facebook might scale down the size of its IPO to $5 billion from $10 billion reported earlier to woo investors.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission will reportedly charge several Credit Suisse (CS)traders and staff for intentionally "mismarking" the price of mortgage-backed securities that resulted multibillion writedown for the bank during the height of the financial crisis.

Less than five people will face charges, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited a source close the the investigation that declined to be named.

In 2008 Credit Suisse took a $2.85 billion charge against earnings because of "intentional" pricing errors on for residential MBS and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that were made "by a small number" of the Swiss bank's traders. The bank said several employees were dismissed following the discovery of the scheme.

The phony prices were an attempt by some of the traders to overstate the value of some positions in order to increase bonuses, according to a report in the New York Times.

--Written by Shanthi Bharatwaj in New York

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