Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers

JPMorgan Chase boosted financial stocks Wendesday.
By Debra Borchardt ,

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.

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