The markets rose significantly today, on news that the Fed feels that the worst of the recession is over and enacted no new monetary policies, allowing the Dow to go up 2.11% closing at 8185.73.  The NASDAQ and the S&P were both up 2.28% and 2.16%.  The price on the 10-year fell again with yields closing higher, at 3.107%.  Crude was up settling at $50.97, while June gold contracts were also up, settling at $900.50. 

Time Warner [TWX: 21.98, +0.21 (+0.96%)] reported earnings today of $661 million, or $0.55 per share, as opposed to the average analyst estimate of $0.39 per share.  Time Warner reported that profit fell 14% and revenue declined 7% to $6.95 billion above analysts’ forecasts of $6.78 billion, a decline in ad sales and higher pension expenses hurt the bottom line.  Time Warner saw growth in earnings due to movies rising 17% despite

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* Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) joined banking firms reporting better-than-expected first quarter numbers. Its earnings beat Street estimates by 40 cents, posting at 44 cents versus 23 cents a year ago and estimates of 4 cents, as Merrill and Countrywide acquisitions remained "on track."

* Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) bettered estimates by 3 cents, reporting first quarter earnings of 44 cents a share versus 64 cents a year ago

* GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) announced plans to acquire US skincare provider Stiefel Labs for up to $3.6 billion

* UBS (NYSE:UBS) said it will sell its Brazilian I-bank, Banco Pactual, for about $2.5 billion

* PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) offered $29.50 in cash and stock for Pepsi Bottling (NYSE:PBG) and $23.27 per share for PepsiAmericas (NYSE:PAS), valuing the companies at about $6.4 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively

* Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) announced plans to acquire Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) for $9.50 per share, or about $7.4 billion

Zacks ...

What tricks does Ken Lewis have up his sleeves for Monday?  Get ready for Bank of America's (NYSE:BAC) Q1 Earnings call tomorrow and the talking heads expect them to report a profit of 5 cents a share.  ThanBank of ...

J.M. Smucker (SJM) and Centerpoint Energy (CNP) were supposed to be "safe" picks for the portfolio. After all, SJM was a food company and more than half of CNP's earnings came from operating an electric utility.

On Wednesday, both stocks fell in reaction to disappointing guidance. We promptly removed both stocks as a result. The holding period for these so-called safe picks was less than 2 months.

SJM fell victim to the ongoing peanut scare. Though the company has stated that its products were not tainted, jars of Jif are not moving.

CNP blamed slowing growth and lower energy usage by customers for crimping fourth-quarter income and 2009 guidance.

On the flip side, banking stocks surged Thursday morning on the prospect that they won't be nationalized. Yet, some of these companies have been the victims of very bad decisions by management.

When times were good, Citigroup (C)

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Saturday January 17, 2009 Navivest

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) yesterday reported that for fiscal year 2008, revenue on a fully taxable-equivalent basis, climbed by 8% to $73.98 billion from $68.58 billion a year ago.

BofA also reported that net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income that a bank earns from its loans and investments on funds collected from depositors and the interest paid to those depositors, increased to $46.55 billion from $36.19 billion in 2007, on higher market-based income, consumer and commercial loan growth, the favorable rate environment and the addition of Countrywide and LaSalle.

The bank’s net interest yield grew by 38 basis points to 2.98%, on what it terms a “more favorable interest rate environment and product mix.”

BofA reported that its full-year 2008 net income was $4.01 billion compared with net income of $14.98 billion a year earlier.

Earnings after preferred dividends were $2.56 billion, or

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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.”