Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers
Financial stocks rallied Wednesday after
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
beat analysts' expectations despite a 50% drop in quarterly profits.
The nation's third-biggest bank reported $2.6 billion of writedowns tied to its loan portfolio, but managed to turn in 68 cents a share, besting the consensus forecast of 64 cents a share. JPMorgan, which is in the process of acquiring battered
Bear Stearns
( BSC) closed up 46.3% to $44.79.
Also coming in with a respectable quarter was
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
, which reported results above Wall Street's expectations. Wells Fargo said its profit fell 11% to $2 billion, or 60 cents per share. According to Thomson Financial, analysts had anticipated earnings of 57 cents per share. The stock gained $1.07 to $28.88, a gain of 3.9%.
NYSE Financial Sector
index advanced 3.3% to 7,515.12.
Southwest bank
BOK Financial
(BOKF) - Get Report
climbed 11.6% to $57.34 after
Suntrust
upgraded the stock to buy from neutral with a $58 price target. Suntrust also raised estimates citing a highly disciplined management and that the bank will continue to grow in a difficult environment.
Knight Capital Group
(NITE)
saw its first-quarter profit edge up 2% and its average daily trade volume in March soar 87% to $16.55 billion. The activity was due to investors moving out of positions taken with borrowed money, the trading firm said in a statement. Knight investors responded positively sending the shares up 11.5% to $16.76.
Elsewhere,
BlackRock's
(BLK) - Get Report
first-quarter earnings rose 24% but fell short of Wall Street expectations as performance-based fees languished amid market turmoil. The market turmoil caused BlackRock's investment net asset values to decline by $27.4 billion net of foreign exchange effect in the first quarter, the firm said. But this was offset by net new business of $35.2 billion. Investors initially traded the stock down $2.70, but in the afternoon the stock recovered and closed up 65 cents to $205.84.
Ahead of Thursday's earnings,
CIT Group
(CIT) - Get Report
rose 7.1% to $11.78 on news that it is providing financing to Palladium Equity Partners to complete the acquisition of American Gilsonite -- a positive sign that the company is still providing capital.
Also in advance of its earnings,
Sallie Mae
(SLM) - Get Report
was downgraded by
Morgan Stanley
, sending the stock sliding 6.8% to $16.26. Morgan forecast lower earnings for the nation's largest student lender amid turmoil in the student loan market.
Wall Street analysts also slashed the profit outlook for
State Street
(STT) - Get Report
after the company disclosed higher unrealized losses in its investment portfolio and structured investment vehicles on Tuesday. A
Deutsche Bank
analyst and analysts at
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
lowered their price target to $83 from $90 and the institutional finance firm saw its shares drop 2 cents to $69.21.