The Case Schiller home price data looks to be much better than I expected. The data is for May, and relative to April the composite 10 index rose by 0.41%, while the composite 20 index was up 0.45% -- on a not-seasonally adjusted basis! There is some seasonality to the data, however, and when the seasonal adjustments come into play the C-10 fell by 0.21% and the C-20 was down by 0.16%. Still, this is a substantial decline in the pace of deterioration, with the C-10 down at an annualized rate of just 2.5% for the month and the C-20 falling at just a 1.7% rate. Compare this to the year-over-year rate of decline (including the May data) showing a 16.8% decline for the C-10 and a 17.1% decline for the C-20. Some of the individual city data was interesting, and since the season affects all cities at ...

PNC Financial Services (PNC) announced that first-quarter EPS far surpassed the consensus as it reaped the benefits of its National City acquisition.

Shares are up more than 2.3% today on abnormally low volume of about 6.6 million, against the average of 11.3 million.

The company reported earnings of $1.03 per share, eliminating the payment of preferred stock dividends to the government, which beat analysts' expectations by 60 cents. Its quarterly revenue more than doubled to $3.87 billion.

PNC indicated that its acquisition of National City not only boosted its first-quarter results but is also expected to be accretive for 2009. During the quarter, the bank realized approximately $400 million in cost savings from the acquisition, one-third of its two-year goal of $1.2 billion.

PNC set aside $880 million during the quarter to cover for losses, up from $151 million a year ago. The company raised the allowance for

...

Highlighted stocks include Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (...

Highlighted stocks include Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (...

Highlighted stocks include McKesson Corporation (…

Highlighted stocks include Bank of America Corporation (...

Highlighted stocks include Eli Lilly & Co. (...

Highlighted stocks include AFLAC Incorporated (...

Highlighted stocks include Apollo Group, Inc. (...

The banking landscape in the U.S. has changed drastically over the past few months. At the beginning of the current year, three major banking acquisitions were completed. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER), Bank of America (BAC) has now become the largest bank in the country by assets, ahead of JP Morgan Chase (JPM), which had recently purchased Washington Mutual's banking operations, and Citigroup (C). At the same time, Wells Fargo (WFC) and PNC Financial Services (PNC) completed the acquisitions of Wachovia and National City to become the 4th and 5th largest bank in the country.Earlier, in September last year, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the other two major investment banks Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) converted to bank holding companies.Twenty-five banks had collapsed last year under the burden of loan losses, and ...