After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to rescue the nation’s financial industry, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would auction off stock warrants it acquired from three big banks that received a significant portion of taxpayers’ money and have fully repaid the same. The government is taking this step to free the lenders from the federal bailout program.  The three banks, whose warrants will be sold via auctions over the next month, are JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Capital One Financial (COF) and TCF Financial Corporation (TCB). These three banks, that received a total of $28.9 billion from the TARP, have fully repurchased Treasury's preferred stock investment. The current move to sell their warrants will completely free these banks from government intervention.  The government still holds warrants of 261 banks, out of which only 15 ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Principal Financial (PFG) as the Bull of the Day and Sohu.com (SOHU) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Sears Holding Corp.(SHLD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are upgrading our recommendation on the shares of Principal Financial (PFG) to Outperform. The company's third quarter operating earnings were much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven primarily by the sequential improvement in domestic as well as global equity markets.

We believe that Principal's strong franchise within the pension sector, which is aided by its diversification both in terms of products and geography, positions it well to benefit

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Bank of America (BAC), MGIC (MTG), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and The Gymboree Corp. (GYMB).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Mortgage Delinquencies: Record High

The delinquency rate is going up much faster than foreclosures are being started. With unemployment high and rising, it is hard to see a lot of those delinquencies getting cured. Either the lenders will have to let people live indefinitely in their houses without

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported today that mortgage delinquencies hit a record high in the third quarter: "The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.64 percent of all loans outstanding as of the end of the third quarter of 2009, up 40 basis points from the second quarter of 2009, and up 265 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey. The non-seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased 108 basis points from 8.86 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to 9.94 percent this quarter." (For more, click here.) Unlike the TransUnion report that came out yesterday, the definition of being delinquent is a bit more expansive in this report, covering all mortgages that are at least one payment behind, while the TransUnion report was for mortgages that ...

This week, initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) were 505,000, the same as last week’s revised figure. However, the initial read was 502,000, so it is just as valid to see this as a 3,000 increase. That, however, is not much in the overall scale of things. The four-week average fell by 6,500 to 514,000, and is now almost 145,000 below its mid-April peak. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the very significant progress that has been made in brining initial claims down, but also the long way we still have to go. The four-week average is still above the peaks of the two previous recessions. It is also still at a level that would indicate continuing net job losses. We probably have to see initial claims fall below the 400,000 level to indicate that, on balance, the economy is adding jobs. On the positive ...

U.S. stocks closed modestly lower Wednesday, after paring deeper losses, as weak housing data and grim outlook from tech companies fuelled worries about the economy.  Stocks struggled to stay near the 13-month high reached the prior session as jittery investors decided to book profits.  Gold prices rose for the fourth straight session.

The Dow, which had slid as much as 77 points in the morning trading, closed down 11.11 points, or 0.1%, to 10,426.31.  The broader S&P 500 index slipped 0.52, or 0.1%, to 1,109.80, while the Nasdaq, hurt by the weakness in tech shares, fell 10.64, or 0.5%, to 2,193.14.  Bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.37% from 3.33% late Tuesday.  Crude prices advanced 44 cents to settle at $79.58 per barrel.  Volume remained light, with only 1.063 billion shares trading on the NYSE, and declining issues ahead

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Mixed News for Credit Card Issuers

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: PNC Financial Services (PNC), Bank of America (BAC), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK), MasterCard (MA) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

BofA Continues CEO Hunt

Recently, William Demchak of the PNC Financial Services (PNC) was offered the position of the next CEO of the Bank of America (BAC). However, the offer was turned down by Demchak.

We suspect Demchak declined the

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This morning Trans Union, the big credit bureau, released its quarterly report on mortgage delinquencies, and it was not pretty. Nationwide, 6.25% of all residential mortgages were at least 60 days past due in the third quarter, up from 5.81% in the second quarter and 3.96% a year ago. This was the 11th straight quarter that delinquencies increased. Mortgage delinquencies are the first step in a house eventually going into foreclosure, so look for those to start heading up again. Foreclosures have been held down by trial modifications under the HEMP program, but very few of those have gotten to the stage of being final modifications. And even when mortgages are modified, there is a strong tendency for those people to again find themselves in financial trouble. Clearly people not paying on their mortgages is not good news for the big banks like Bank of America (BAC) ...

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline in late payments in the first half of the year, the increase in delinquencies is bad news for the sector as it implies that the companies could experience more charge-offs in the coming quarters.   Consumers remain under stress as a result of the weakness in the housing market, combined with job losses. Recently, Fitch has also expressed its concern about the credit card issuers in the U.S. Fitch expects U.S. credit card issuers’ earnings to remain challenged over the near term as a result of soaring unemployment, bankruptcies and losses.   The default rate (or charge-off rate) has improved in October from the prior month. For American Express Co. (AXP) it ...