NEW YORK (Reuters) – A surge of troubled loans overshadowed better-than-expected earnings at Bank of America Corp, and the largest U.S. bank said it expects the credit situation to worsen, driving its shares down 24.3 percent.
Continue reading Bank of America shares plunge

Bank stocks traded mixed Thursday following JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM Quote) better-than-expected earnings report.

JPMorgan’s first-quarter profit slipped 10% from a year ago, but earnings of $2.14 billion, or 40 cents a share, were better than analyst forecasts. The bank also recorded revenue of $26.9 billion, compared with the Thomson Reuters average estimate of $22.9 billion.
Continue reading JPMorgan Chase’s Earnings Report

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic $150 billion stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world’s second-largest economy.
Continue reading Japan unveils $150 billion stimulus plan

Finally, a bit of good news from the forefront.

U.S. stocks rallied, capping the market’s steepest two-week gain since 1938, as investors speculated the Obama administration’s plan to rid banks of toxic assets will spur growth and investor Mark Mobius said a new bull market has begun. Treasuries and the dollar fell.

Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. both soared at least 19 percent as the U.S. Treasury said it will finance as much as $1 trillion in purchases of distressed assets. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. jumped more than 6.7 percent after oil rose to an almost four-month high. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index extended its rebound from a 12-year closing low on March 9 to 22 percent as all 10 of its main industry groups advanced.

There is a lot of speculation and anticipation in the market in the past weeks about the new Troubled Asset Relief Program. Ideas such as the creation of “bad banks” and the nationalization of banks that avail of it have been tossed around. However, one strong reassurance from the Obama administration that this plan contains ideas that work to loosen the money from the banks’ tight fisted grip and get the credit market moving again.

One early concept was the idea of the “bad bank” that would acquire the toxic mortgage assets from other banks’ balance sheets. This would help the banks get rid of assets that would otherwise remain illiquid and this make banks more comfortable with providing credit to consumers. Right now, it’s a balance between hurting the taxpayers or not helping the bank enough.
Continue reading TARP Speculation – Mortgage Help in the Works?

LONDON—The credit crunch will cost London 62,000 financial jobs or finance related jobs in 2008 and 2009, wiping out the hiring gains of the past decade, a British economics consultancy group said in a report on Monday.

The number of professionals in London’s financial industry — Europe’s biggest — will drop by 28,000 this year from the 2007 level and a further 34,000 jobs will go next year, said the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
Continue reading Finance Jobs in the news

Check out the article on Businessweek.com why Giethener’s bank plan failed to assure inverstors.

In a nutshell,Geithner promised a stringent “stress test” of banks’ balance sheets; more aid to banks through a new Financial Stability Trust; up to $1 trillion for a public-private partnership to buy banks’ bad real estate assets; up to $1 trillion to support student, auto, consumer, small business, and commercial-mortgage lending; and a major effort to lower the rates and monthly payments on home mortgages.

The biggest plus in Geithner’s plan is the sheer size of it. “It’s much better than Bush-Paulson because it’s owning up to the scale of the problem,” says Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff, referring to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, devised by former President George W. Bush and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

TOKYO (CNN) — Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, announced a series of steps Monday to deal with the economic downturn, including slashing its workforce by 20,000.

The cost-cutting measures makes Nissan (NSANY) the latest among the country’s carmakers to take drastic action in the face of a worsening financial outlook.

The job reductions will bring down Nissan’s head count from 235,000 to 215,000. (Link)

That’s roughly 8% of their workforce. Not a huge percentage but significant nonetheless