Bank of America (BAC) today 10/06/08, pre-announced Q3 2008 earnings result after the markets closed. The company reported revenues net of interest expense of $19.90 billion. This was a 21% increase from the $16.47 billion that the bank reported a year earlier. Analysts were expecting revenues of $20.61 billion.

Net income came in at $1.18 billion, or $0.15 per share, down from $3.70 billion, or $0.82 per share, a year earlier. This represented a 68% drop in profits.

According to the company, “Net interest income on a fully taxable-equivalent basis rose 33 percent to $11.92 billion from $8.99 billion in the third quarter of 2007 due to the acquisitions of LaSalle and Countrywide, loan and deposit growth, and the impact of rate movements.”

Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide, which Bank of America (BAC) acquired on July 1st of this year, added $259 million in operating earnings in the quarter. This increased Bank of

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Countrywide Deal Closes; Expanding Manufacturing; Conduct Trouble at Moody’s; Hong Kong Holiday; Construction Spending Down for 11th Straight Month; Constellation Toasts to Profit; AT&T Drops iPhone Contract; BP Employees Ridden Out of Russia Bank of America Corp. (BAC) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it had completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC). The all-stock deal was initially announced in January. Bank of America expects to eliminate 7,500 jobs now that the acquisition is complete, MarketWatch reported. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of manufacturing activity had a 0.6 gain to 50.2 in June, the first measurement since January that showed the manufacturing sector was expanding. “While it may be too soon to say that manufacturing has begun to start growing again, it is possible that a bottom is being reached,” Joel Naroff, president and chief economist ...

First Bank of America (BAC) took a stake in Countrywide (CFC) and now Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the “Proud Sponsor of the American Dream,” is closing and Citigroup (C) said Friday that it would buy the remnants of the business from ACC Capital Holdings in Orange.

Ameriquest shuttered its 229 retail offices months ago and as recently as 2005, Ameriquest and its sister company, Argent Mortgage, were together the No. 1 sub-prime mortgage lender in the world.

Bond and equity markets both reacted negatively to comments from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. In a CNBC interview he spoke about the problems in housing and predicted a recession would result.

Should investors heed this warning?

Bernanke moved today and unlike the chorus of calls for a Fed Funds Rate cut we have heard, he moved both to calm markets and keep rates steady.

Saying, “Financial market conditions have deteriorated, and tighter credit conditions and increased uncertainty have the potential to restrain economic growth going forward. In these circumstances, although recent data suggest that the economy has continued to expand at a moderate pace, the Federal Open Market Committee judges that the downside risks to growth have increased appreciably. The Committee is monitoring the situation and is prepared to act as needed to mitigate the adverse effects on the economy arising from the disruptions in financial markets.”