Financial Winners & Losers: Wachovia
Financial stocks rose early along with the overall market Friday as the House of Representatives moved closer to making the government's proposed rescue package a reality, but after the vote, the sector pulled back from its highs.
The House voted to approve Senate amendments that allowed the Bush administration's
plan to proceed by a 263-171 vote. However, traders sold on the news, and the major market averages came off their best levels.
Recently, the KBW Bank index was down 1.4%, while the NYSE Financial Sector index was up 1.8%. The Amex Securities Broker/Dealer index was tacking on 0.6%.
Among stocks,
Wachovia
(WB) - Get Free Report
was the story of the day, jumping 70% to $6.64 after
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Free Report
said it would acquire the North Carolina bank for more than $15 billion. Earlier this week,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Free Report
said it had a deal, with government backing, to buy Wachovia.
Citi said the Wells Fargo transaction was a "clear breach of an exclusivity agreement" it had with
and demanded the new proposal be shelved. Shares of Citi were down 12%, and Wells was up 7.4%.
AIG
(AIG) - Get Free Report
was also rising after it said it plans to sell some of its businesses while holding on to its U.S. property and casualty and foreign general insurance operations. Shares of
were up almost 9% to $4.35.
UBS
(UBS) - Get Free Report
was trading to the downside, falling 2.2% to $19.66 following word from the Swiss bank that it will eliminate around 2,000 jobs in its investment-banking unit.
said the latest job cuts will bring staffing levels to about 17,000 by year-end, down about 6,000 since the third quarter of last year.
Elsewhere in the group,
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Free Report
was up 3.5%.
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Free Report
was gaining 8.8%, but
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Free Report
was easing by 0.9%.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.
