Financial Stocks in Motion

Ameritrade(AMTD Quote) rose after saying it expects fourth-quarter earnings to be at or near the high end of prior guidance of 18 cents to 23 cent a share. The online brokerage also said its August volume was up, with clients making an average of 146,000 trades per day, compared with 113,000 a year ago and 144,000 in July. Average client margin balances in August totaled about $3.6 billion. Shares of Ameritrade were up 51 cents to $20.64.

White Mountains Insurance(WTM Quote) fell about 10% after the Bermuda-based insurance company said its total insurance and reinsurance losses from Hurricane Katrina will be $100 million to $200 million. CEO Ray Barrette said that while this is a big loss for the company, "we continue to have a strong balance sheet with a significant amount of undeployed capital." Shares of White Mountain were down $67.40 to $635.

Investment Technology Group(ITG Quote) rose modestly after the New York-based provider of technology-based equity trading services said U.S. trading volume was 2.3 billion shares for August, up from 2 billion in July and 1.5 billion in the year-ago period. ITG said it averaged 99 million shares per trading day in August, down from 101 million a day in July, but up from 74 million a day in the year-ago period. ITG shares rose 2 cents to $29. ...