Banks to get stress test results Friday: report

(Reuters) - U.S. banks will be briefed by regulators as early as Friday on how they performed in government "stress tests," before the results are made public later, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing government officials.


Reuters - The Wall Street entrance to the New York Stock Exchange is pictured March 27, 2009. REUTERS/Eric Thayer ...
Some estimates of likely losses that were used in the stress tests were tougher than expected, the newspaper said.

"Under a more adverse scenario, which assumes a 10.3 percent unemployment rate at the end of 2010, banks would have to calculate two-year losses of up to 8.5 percent on their first-lien mortgage portfolios, 11 percent on home-equity lines of credit, 8 percent on commercial and industrial loans, 12 percent on commercial real estate loans, and 20 percent on credit card portfolios," the paper said, citing a confidential document from the Federal Reserve.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said most U.S. banks have enough capital to keep lending, but a pile of bad debts is fostering doubts about their health and slowing a recovery.

An official at the Federal Reserve said last week that results of the tests, designed to see how the nation's 19 largest banks would fare should the U.S. recession prove unexpectedly severe, would be made public on May 4.

The official said regulators will try to prove the rigor of the tests by releasing a document on Friday that explains the underlying assumptions. The document will outline the methodologies employed and serve as a guide on how to interpret the results.

Thanks to http://finance.yahoo.com

Wall Street ends mixed; Dow down 27 points

The US markets reversed early losses led by financials, after Goldman posted strong first quarter profit.

Financial stocks had been among the session's worst performing sectors in the first few minutes of action, falling as much as 2.7% as traders took profits following the strong gains that financials registered late last week. However, buyers provided support by buying the dip in financials.

The market was also buzzing about President Barack Obama's press conference on the economy later today. The president is expected to talk about government's recession-busting actions.

However, earlier in the session, shares of General Motors tumbled 16% as the treasury department instructed the auto maker to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by first June deadline. Also Read - How ADRs performed

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 25.57 points, or 0.3%, to 8,057.81. The S&P 500 Index was up 2.17 points, or 0.3%, to 858.73, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.77 points, or 0.1%, to 1,653.31.

Richard Bove, Financial Strategist, Rochdale Securities said, “The reason numbers are good is because their core business, which is trading did extraordinarily well. You had a whole series of things working in Goldman’s favour. The competition is gone away; all of the firms are no longer in business. Goldman has pricing power because there are so few competitors, or weaker competitors, Goldman has doubled the price of transaction in the first quarter."

In Commodities

Crude prices slipped below USD 50/bbl mark, extending yesterday's 4.2 percent loss, after the international energy agency forecasted that 2009 demand may slump to the lowest level in five years amid the global economic recession.

Copper climbed to the highest in almost six months in London, pacing an advance in industrial metals, as investors sought to catch up on gains made in shanghai and New York.

Futures in China and the US advanced after the Chinese government said it is considering additional stimulus measures to spur economic growth. Government plans to spur growth in the US, Europe, Japan and China helped trigger a 58 percent rally in London prices this year.

Thanks to http://www.moneycontrol.com