Thursday's Headlines: BofA
(At 7:45 a.m. EDT)
Thursday's Early Headlines
¿ Bank of America Wants to Repay TARP.
-
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Bank of America Corp Report
reportedly wants to pay back this year $45 billion it received in bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The Financial Times
said the bank is on track to raise more than $35 billion in capital by the end of September. The stress tests the U.S. government showed earlier this month that BofA would need a capital buffer of $33.9 billion, more than any other bank, to protect against losses if the economy worsened.
¿ Treasury to Give GMAC Billions.
- The Treasury Department is set to inject more than $7 billion into
GMAC
, the financing arm of
General Motors
(GM) - Get General Motors Company Report
,
The Wall Street Journal
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reported. The injection is the first installment of a new government aid package that could reach $14 billion, according to the report.
¿ S&P Downgrades U.K. Outlook.
- Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.K.'s sovereign debt ratings to negative from stable, pressuring the sterling.
The Financial Times
said S&P's revision is embarrassing for the British Treasury and will give ammunition to the opposition Conservative party, which argues that the government is presiding over a growing and unstable amount of debt.
¿ Franklin Leads Bidders for AIG Asset Unit.
- Franklin Templeton Investments has emerged as the leading bidder for
American International Group's
(AIG) - Get American International Group, Inc. Report
asset-management business, according to
The Wall Street Journal
. The AIG Investments unit is expected fetch $500 million, well below the $800 million some suitors proposed paying just two months ago, according to the report.
¿ Shareholder Meetings Scheduled for Thursday.
- Several companies will also be holding annual shareholder meetings, including
Boeing
(BA) - Get Boeing Company Report
,
KeyCorp
,
BlackRock
(BLK) - Get BlackRock, Inc. Report
, and
Yum! Brands
(YUM) - Get Yum! Brands, Inc. Report
.
Earnings and Economic News
¿ GameStop To Report Before the Open
- Video game retailer
GameStop
(GME) - Get GameStop Corp. Class A Report
is expected to report a first-quarter profit of 42 cents a share on sales of $1.99 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
¿ Bon-Ton Surges After Earnings Beat
-
Bon-Ton Stores
(BONT)
reported a first-quarter loss of $2.67 a share, 77 cents better than the lone analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenues fell 8% from a year ago to $644.5 million. The retailer reaffirmed guidance for 2010, saying it expects a loss of $3.40 to $4.30 a share, compared with estimates for a loss of $4.25 a share. Shares jumped 20% in the premarket session.
Turning to economic news, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will once again be testifying on Capitol Hill, this time before the House Financial Services Committee. On Wednesday, Geithner told the Senate Banking Committee that "the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators," although uncertainty about the health of individual banks has "sharply reduced lending across the financial system, working against economic recovery."
Geithner said that banks indentified by the government's stress tests as having capital shortfalls totaling $75 billion have raised $48 billion through offerings and asset sales.
Among reports, weekly initial jobless claims will be the highlight of the economic docket Thursday. At 8:30 a.m. EDT, the Labor Department is expected to say initial claims rose slightly to 640,000 from 637,000 the week prior. The 637,000 was a lot higher than economists had predicted as the auto sector contributed to the jump in numbers, presumably from
Chrysler's
bankruptcy announcement.
At 10 a.m. EDT, two other economic reports are set to cross. Leading economic indicators are expected to have increased 0.6% in April after a 0.3% decline in March, while the Philadelphia
Federal Reserve
is expected to say its manufacturing index improved slightly to a reading of -20 in May from -24.4 in April.
