Tuesday's Financial Winners & Losers

The financial sector saw choppy trading in the red Tuesday, ahead of the Federal Reserve's expected decision Wednesday to cut interest rates.

Among individual stocks, the Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) saga continued as CEO Stanley O'Neal finally turned in his resignation under pressure. The company's board has been reportedly floating names for his replacement since last week after O'Neal suggested a merger to his counterpart at Wachovia (WB Quote).

Board member Alberto Cribiore will fill in as nonexecutive chairman and head a committee to search for O'Neal's permanent successor. This is all in the wake of Merrill's dreadful third-quarter results, just issued last week, which reflected a far bigger loss than what the broker had predicted earlier this month. ...