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).

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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

...

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 offer as the pay package is likely to be among the least competitive in the industry, especially since the Obama administration's pay czar took the axe to seven institutions' pay plans, chopping the average high-end salary by 50%. Moreover, the bank is also operating under a memorandum of understanding with regulators, who are scrutinizing the top gun's every decision.   The present CEO of the Bank of America, Mr. Ken Lewis, is set to leave the position, stepping down at the end of the year. It may be noted that he succumbed to the pressure to resign after his company’s Merrill Lynch acquisition.   Earlier this month, Robert Kelly of the ...

In its latest quarterly Lending & Investing Initiative report, Bank of America Corporation (BAC) said on Monday that it has extended about $184 billion in credit during the third quarter of 2009 to support households and communities.  The report makes obvious how BofA is utilizing the bailout money to support the U.S. economy. According to the report, since the fourth quarter of 2008 when the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was initiated, BofA had extended $759 billion in new credit. This represents almost $17 for every dollar of the $45 billion it received under the TARP. BofA also continues to provide a significant return on investment to the U.S. taxpayers. The bank is expected to pay more than $2.5 billion in dividend to the U.S. Treasury through Nov 16, 2009.  The extension of home loans continues to be among BofA’s priorities. The company extended $96 billion ...

Dan Holland has just interviewed Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino’s. The first few paragraphs of the interview that appeared on RealClearMarkets are published below.

There’s good reason to believe that Gasparino’s latest book, The Sellout, will become the definitive book on the current financial crisis and the events that led up to “The Great Recession.” Spanning three decades, The Sellout pulls no punches in chronicling the rise and fall of excessive Wall Street leverage and risk taking, as well as the cast of colorful characters that ultimately brought the US financial system to its knees. It will hit bookshelves tomorrow [Tuesday].

RealClearMarkets: You sat down recently with Wall Street legend Teddy Forstmann to discuss your new book and the genesis of the mess we now find ourselves in. Forstmann said it all began as a “cold” back in the 1970s and 1980s, and that since

...

The stock market has become overheated since exploding off its March lows and could be in for a strong correction, economist David Rosenberg told CNBC.

“It is overvalued by at least 20%,” Rosenberg, formerly chief economist at Merrill Lynch and now with Gluskin Sheff & Associates, said in an interview. “But it comes down to what your view in corporate earnings (is) going to be. By the time you’re up 60% from any egregiously oversold low, you’ve already got the earnings recovery.”

Source: CNBC, October 27, 2009.

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Meryn King, the British counterpart to U.S. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had this to say in a speech yesterday: “The United Kingdom faces two fundamental long-run challenges. First, to rebalance the economy, with more resources allocated to business investment and net exports and fewer to consumption. "That is consistent with the need – now widely accepted – to eliminate the large structural fiscal deficit and to raise the national saving rate. It is part of a need for a wider rebalancing of domestic demand in the world economy away from those countries that borrowed and ran current account deficits towards those that lent and ran surpluses." Everything he has to say about the UK is true in spades for the US. The US. is more dependent on consumption than is the UK and perpetually runs trade (current account) deficits. We need for the US to ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 19, 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: Google Inc. (GOOG), Bank of America Corporation (BAC), American International Group (AIG), Citigroup (C) and GMAC Inc. (GJM).

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 Friday’s AnalystBlog:

Google Stuns the Market

Google Inc. (GOOG) reported third quarter results that blew away all estimates. Earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a dollar and 20 cents. Revenue beat the consensus by around 40%.

Revenue

Gross revenue of $5.94 billion was up 7.6% sequentially

...

Bank of America Corporation’s (BAC) third quarter 2009 loss came in at 26 cents per share, substantially worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimated loss of 10 cents. This compares unfavorably with earnings of 15 cents in the prior-year quarter. The worse-than-expected results came in due primarily to continued weakness in the U.S. and global economies as well as stress on the consumer, which continues to result in high credit costs. The results for the quarter were negatively impacted by $2.6 billion in pretax mark-to-market and credit valuation adjustments on certain liabilities, including the Merrill Lynch structured notes, and a $402 million pretax charge to pay the U.S. government for termination of its asset guarantee term sheet. However, strengthening reserves, capital position and liquidity were key positives during the quarter.    The results for the quarter exclude total preferred dividends of $1.2 billion. The preferred dividend paid ...

As always, piece was available to subscribers well before pricing and open. VRSK - Verisk Analytics plans on offering 85.25 million shares in a range of $19-$21. Insiders will be selling all of the shares in this deal, VRSK will receive no monies. If over-allotments are exercised, insiders will be offering 12.75 million shares bringing the total deal size to 98 million shares. BofA/Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are leading the deal, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, William Blair, Fox-Pitt Kelton a ..

This week on Consuelo Mack WealthTrack three outstanding financial world figures share their “one investment” recommendation for a long-term diversified portfolio. The guests are: Bob Doll who runs three large cap funds at BlackRock; John Montgomery who heads up a family of funds using computer models at Bridgeway Capital; and Tom Petrie, Vice Chairman of Bank of America - Merrill Lynch, who is a veteran observer of the energy sector. As always with WealthTrack this is excellent viewing material.

Note: The transcript of this interview is not available yet, but will be posted here as soon as it arrives.

Source: Wealthtrack, October 9, 2009.

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