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 ...

This morning Trans Union, the big credit bureau, released its quarterly report on mortgage delinquencies, and it was not pretty. Nationwide, 6.25% of all residential mortgages were at least 60 days past due in the third quarter, up from 5.81% in the second quarter and 3.96% a year ago. This was the 11th straight quarter that delinquencies increased. Mortgage delinquencies are the first step in a house eventually going into foreclosure, so look for those to start heading up again. Foreclosures have been held down by trial modifications under the HEMP program, but very few of those have gotten to the stage of being final modifications. And even when mortgages are modified, there is a strong tendency for those people to again find themselves in financial trouble. Clearly people not paying on their mortgages is not good news for the big banks like Bank of America (BAC) ...

• Home Depot (NYSE:HD) topped estimates by a nickel as earnings for the third quarter reached 41 cents, on inline revenues of $16.36 billion, down 8%. Comparable sales fell 6.9%. The company issued 2010 guidance of $1.55, slightly ahead of $1.53 projections. According to the firm, "There is still a great deal of pressure in the housing and home improvement markets, though there are some positive signs of stabilization."

• ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares were upgraded to "overweight" at Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS)

• A regulatory filing showed Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) nearly doubled its Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) holdings; added almost 112 million Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) shares; the filing showed a 1.28 million holding of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares; and 3.2 million shares of SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)

• UBS (NYSE:UBS) CEO Grubel outlined an ambitious goal of annual pre-tax profits of $14.89 billion over the next 3-5 years

• Dillard's (NYSE:DDS) reported a smaller than expected third quarter loss,

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Nov. 13, 2009 (Business Wire) — QuoteMedia, Inc. (OTCBB: QMCI), a leading provider of market data and financial applications, announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009. These results reflect a 1% increase in third quarter revenue, to $1,910,884 from $1,888,279 in the comparative period in 2008. Revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 increased 7%, to $5,658,444 from $5,300,350 in the comparative period in 2008.

“As forecasted, the global recession moderated QuoteMedia’s revenue growth during the first three quarters of 2009,” says Keith Guelpa, President of QuoteMedia, Inc. “The downturn, however, has presented opportunities as the added pressure on financial sector firms to find more efficient and cost effective solutions to their data and technology needs has opened many new doors for QuoteMedia’s offerings. While we have suffered the loss of some smaller clients who have shrunk or ceased operations as

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• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) added Cytec Industries (NYSE:CYT) to its Conviction Sell List, with a target of $31.  The analyst warned of the bleak outlook for the late-cycle aerospace industry, and economic uncertainties in Europe, which represents 40% of sales

• JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) plans to reinstate 401K matching programs starting with 2009 as well as plans to hire 1,200 mortgage officers

• Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Bartz said the company is hiring again as the firm expects to increase its operating profit margin to the 15-20% range on cost cutting and sales growth

• Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) said it plans to cut 680 jobs, or about 9% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan.  The company said the move would result in pre-tax charges of $65 million to $71 million, with $18 million to $20 million to be taken in the fourth quarter

• Monsanto (NYSE:MON) confirmed its full-year 2010 earnings outlook

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• Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) reported adjusted third quarter earnings of $3.45 a share, 55 cents above consensus estimates, on better-than-expected revenues of $730.7 million, ahead of estimates of $$693.97 million on strong summer season travel. The firm provided fourth quarter guidance at about $1.06-$1.16

• Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) said it plans to cut 1500 additional jobs. The firm reported second quarter adjusted earnings of 6 cents, a one penny miss, on revenues of $1.15 billion, which slightly topped Street projections of $1.12 billion. The firm forecast 2010 earnings of $0.70-$1.00, topping estimates of 89 cents on revenues of $4.2-$4.4 billion versus estimates of $4.26 billion

• Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) rejected the latest Kraft (NYSE:KFT) bid calling it "derisory"

• Moody's (NYSE:MCO) commented that AIG (NYSE:AIG) will be able to repay its Federal loans

• Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) lifted its growth expectations for the semiconductor group following release of third quarter numbers. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) remained its first

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While I touched on unemployment duration at the end of my last blog, this is a very important subject and deserves a bit more elaboration. Quite simply being out of work for three or four weeks is a very different experience with very different economic implications than being out of work for six months to a year or more. The focus on the total number of unemployed obscures that reality. The thing that makes this recession so much different than the ones that have gone before it is how long people are staying out of work once they become unemployed. Yeah if you get laid off for a few weeks, it can be a pain in the butt, but essentially it is just an unplanned vacation. It does not really affect your long term financial solvency, nor do your job skills diminish significantly. After six months, regular state unemployment ...

Schwab’s new ETFs solve one critical problem in the ETF market, but they won’t take over the world. At least not for a while.

I’ve been thinking about the Schwab ETF launch all week, trying to figure out if it’s a game-changing event or an overblown bit of marketing. I think it’s a bit of both.

The big news, of course, is that Schwab is entering the ETF market and breaking new ground on fees. It has launched four ETFs that offer the lowest expense ratios in the world: As low as 0.08 percent for U.S. broad market exposure. The new Schwab Total Market ETF (NYSEArca: SCHB) and Schwab Large Cap Equity ETF (NYSEArca: SCHX) are now the lowest-cost mutual funds available to retail investors.

What’s more, Schwab is offering zero commissions for Schwab customers who buy or sell the ETFs.

That’s a big deal. Commissions are a huge hurdle

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U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday after a late-session profit taking almost wiped off a 156-point rally in the Dow average that was fueled by the Fed’s encouraging assessment of the economy and its decision to keep interest rates low for an extended period.  The optimism was short-lived as investors appeared jittery ahead of the October jobs report on Friday. Fresh concerns over bank earnings resurfaced after the House of Representatives passed a bill curbing credit card rate increases.

After the house vote, financials slumped 1.5% and led the decliners among the S&P 500 industry groups.  Analyst Meredith Whitney noted the biggest U.S. banks may face declining values on home-loan bonds with government backing as the Fed moves towards ending its $1.25 trillion purchase program.  Whitney said bank earnings are far from approaching "normalcy," and will reflect regulatory changes for an extended period.  JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell 1.2% to $42.21 and

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Too big to fail, is still heavy in the derivative market, and primed for a gigantic collapse.

Congress needs a chimney sweep to clean the soot from the smoke they’ve been blowing. Our do nothing congress; well we can’t really say do nothing, they did bail out the banks, and they have raised more money for themselves this session from Insurance, health care and bank lobbyists than in any other one year period, and the year isn’t even over. Now they are spreading the word, the gospel of Obama, it’s time to

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