Bob and Scott » bac

Friday Earnings Plays

BobL — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:28:50 +0000

IBM kicked butt this quarter. Google hit it pretty well. No big concerns there.

Friday is a big day. Own financials? Tomorrow will be a big day for you.

Friday, July 17
Before The Open Actual First Call Yr Ago Yr/Yr Rev
A.O. Smith AOS 0.50 1.03
Amcol ACO 0.29 0.58
Badger Meter BMI 0.54 0.48
Bank of America BAC 0.28 0.72
BB&T Corp BBT 0.21 0.69
Bemis BMS 0.41 0.46
Citigroup C -0.31 -0.49
First Horizon FHN -0.33 -0.11
First Niagara FNFG 0.14
General Electric GE 0.23 0.54
Marshall & Ilsley MI -0.69 -1.52
Mattel MAT 0.00 0.03
Prosperity Bancshares PRSP 0.50 0.52
Webster Financial WBS -0.44 0.42

Other major business events and economic events scheduled for Friday:

Commerce Department releases housing starts for June, 8:30 a.m.
House Financial Services Committee hearing on the president’s proposed financial overhaul.
European Union foreign trade stats for May are released.

Dead Cat Bounce

Still love XLF

BobL — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:09:54 +0000

When I was looking to get deeper into the banking sector a couple of months back, but didn’t want to take on all of the risk that came with the individual names, I bought an ETF as a proxy for the sector. The ETF is XLF.

In my opinion, this is the best way to buy the banking sector with minimal risk. Banks could still go bust. The “too big to fail” mantra may begin falling on deaf ears if new capital is needed and unavailable in the open market. Buying individual names such as Citi or Bank of America could be dicey. The XLF tracks the good and the bad and you will profit as the sector moves up.

The XLF is up 73% in the past three months.

Bob

SEC charging ex-Countrywide CEO Mozilo with fraud – Yahoo! Finance

BobL — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:29:10 +0000

This certainly sends a message to others who act to enrich themselves at the expense of many others. Oh wait, that might just be a description of wall st….

Mozillo was not alone in this kind of behavior, he was just blatant, high profile, and got caught.

Federal regulators on Thursday charged Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., and two other company executives with civil fraud.

via SEC charging ex-Countrywide CEO Mozilo with fraud – Yahoo! Finance.

Sold the Q’s Replaced with BAC

BobL — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:28:58 +0000

I have an IRA that I almost never touch. I glanced at it yesterday and realized that I had some money in QQQQ which is an ETF that is essentially like buying the NASDAQ 100. Not a bad long term play, but I wanted to take a little bit of money and buy a potential winning lottery ticket. I sold enough QQQQ to purchase 500 shares of BAC.

Bank of America could be that lottery ticket. By absorbing Countrywide, BAC owns much of the mortgage market. Our government is doing whatever it can to make the mortgage arena a profitable one for companies playing there. If things truly have bottomed in housing, as recent data might suggest, this ticket could pay off big.

500 shares won’t change anyones life. But I could see the QQQQ to BAC trade being a 5 bagger in a couple of years. To top it off, I got out and in at pretty good prices. Sold QQQQ at $30.59 and bought BAC at $7.44. I sold the Q’s at market and placed a limit order on BAC. The tumble in financials after the treasury auction allowed me to get a good price.

C and BAC buying mortgages

BobL — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:08:25 +0000

I read that C and BAC were buying up bad mortgages at .30 on the dollar! Good plan? Bad plan? There is support for both sides.

Bad plan. Devastating, actually:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/218286/One-Small-Problem-with-Geithners-Plan:-It-Will-Bankrupt-the-Banks

Good plan.
http://www.businessinsider.com/it-looks-like-citi-and-bank-of-america-are-already-gaming-the-system-2009-3