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 ...

JPMorgan Chase & Company (JPM) is in discussions to take full control of its U.K. joint-venture partner, Cazenove Group, for about £1 billion ($1.7 billion).   JPMorgan entered into a partnership with Cazenove five years ago. At that time, JPMorgan paid about £100 million for a 50% ownership in Cazenove.   Now, JPMorgan intends to buy the remaining 50% of the investment-banking partnership for 500−525 pence per share.   Chief Executive Naguib Kheraj, the former finance chief of Barclays PLC (BCS) is running JPMorgan Cazenove since last year. Cazenove first became one of London's leading stockbrokers in the mid-1930s.   Deciding on the full acquisition of Cazenove has been crucial for Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan. Dimon organized a similar purchase of the bank’s remaining stake in Highbridge Capital Management this year.   In the last few years, JPMorgan has been able to maintain its top ...

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 ...

US stocks ended Monday with losses on fresh concerns that the current market levels are overblown.  A rebound in dollar against key foreign currencies sent commodities lower and financials fell as reports emerged the federal government may require Bank of America to raise more capital.  The group took another beating as influential analyst Richard Bove trimmed his ratings on a number of regional banks.  Homebuilders also led the market lower on reports the first time homebuilders' tax credit is unlikely to be extended.

The Dow Jones industrial average oscillated within a 200-point range and briefly touched the 10,000 mark, before some profit taking saw the index squandering the earlier advance and ending the day 104-points lower.  Technology shares, only sector to have recorded gains last week, fell out of favor and slid along with the broader market.  The technology-laden Nasdaq retreated 12.62 points, or 0.6%, to 2,141.63.  The CBOE

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 22, 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: US Bancorp (USB), Visa Inc. (V), Genzyme Corp (GENZ), Shire plc (SHPGY) and Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (PLX).

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 Wednesday’s AnalystBlog:

US Bancorp Exceeds Estimates

US Bancorp (USB) has reported third quarter earnings of $603 million or 30 cents per share. Results were ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 26 cents, and reflected higher revenue and an increase in fee income.

However, credit losses and nonperforming assets

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US Bancorp (USB) has reported third quarter earnings of $603 million or 30 cents per share. Results were ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 26 cents, and reflected higher revenue and an increase in fee income. However, credit losses and nonperforming assets continued to trend higher in the quarter, reflecting continued stress in the commercial, commercial real estate, residential real estate and consumer loan portfolios. We note that the rate of deterioration has somewhat moderated in the quarter. Quarterly results were, however, impacted by a $415 million of provision for credit losses in excess of net charge-offs, net securities losses of $76 million and a gain of $39 million associated with the company’s investment in Visa Inc. (V). These items reduced earnings by 19 cents per share. Results for the quarter were driven by record total net revenue of $4.3 billion, representing an ...

• Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) reported third quarter earnings of $1.20 a share, 18 cents ahead of Zacks estimates, on third quarter revenues of $5.56 billion.  The company said, "Our performance in the third quarter once again was driven by volume-based sales growth, improving gross margins and tight control of operating expenses, allowing us to deliver very attractive earnings growth"

• Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) results beat Zacks estimates of 7 cents, coming in at 13 cents, as the company’s operations benefitted from cost-cutting measures; revenues held steady with last quarter's at $1.13 billion.  According to CFO Morse, "There's a change occurring in Yahoo, that will value that kind of work - that good old-fashioned, get-your-hands-dirty kind of find ways to take costs down or make sure that they don't go up as much as they otherwise would have - type work"

• SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) results also beat projections on earnings of 75 cents, well

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A tepid report on housing starts sent stocks into a tizzy and major indexes slipped from their year highs as solid earnings reports from Apple Inc. to Caterpillar were overlooked by anxious investors.  A rebound in dollar from its 14-month lows also added to the downward pressure and hurt commodities, sending energy and material shares lower. 

Weakness in share sent Treasury prices higher, with the 10-year closing up 13/32, to 102 11/32.  The yield fell to 3.34%, from 3.39% late Monday.  On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.71 points, or 0.50%, to 10,041.48.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index retreated 6.85 points, or 0.62%, at 1,091.06 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 12.85 points, or 0.59%, to 2,163.47.  Market breadth was negative.  On the New York Stock Exchange, declining shares beat those that rose in price two to one on volume of 1.24 billion

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U.S. Bancorp (USB) has signed a deal with BB&T Corp. (BBT) to acquire the latter’s banking operations in Nevada . As per the agreement, U.S. Bank National Association, U.S. Bancorp’s lead bank, will purchase about $800 million in deposits and certain branches of BB&T’s Nevada banking operations.   The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in early 2010. The acquisition involves deposits of those branches that BB&T had recently acquired from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver for Colonial Bank.  The purchase will fortify U.S. Bancorp’s business in Nevada . The company expects this acquisition to meet or exceed the company’s internal rate of return and earnings per share accretion targets.  Last week, US Bancorp has announced that its lead bank, U.S. Bank, has agreed to buy the bond trustee business of First Citizens Bank, a subsidiary of ...

After enduring extraordinary shocks in 2008, the U.S. banks entered an exceptional state of turmoil in 2009. Starting as a credit issue in the subprime segment of the mortgage market, the sticky situation spread to almost the entire financial services industry, and all corners of the globe. In other words, the financial crisis ultimately morphed into a massive economic crisis, which has had major ramifications across the whole world. Although the banking industry is dealing with liquidity and confidence challenges, it now has financial support from the U.S. government. The government has taken several steps, including programs offering capital injections and debt guarantees, to stabilize the financial system. We believe that the worst of the credit crisis is now probably behind us. After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a lot has improved with respect to the economic crisis, but ...