For an institution that was brought to its depths, Citigroup has built one of the strongest franchises in the world, not just the United States.
In that environment banks should do well psychologically as well as fundamentally.
It's unusual to be that accommodating. But it's kind of balanced by the goodwill consideration of bringing a key (tourism) destination to town.
Today's actions were pretty well discounted and well telegraphed. It's much more difficult to ascertain what the magnitude of the potential costs from lawsuits might be. So there's still a high degree of headline risk for the brokerages.
Today's actions were pretty well discounted and well telegraphed,
Expectations for the brokers have turned somewhat more negative. We're not terribly excited about the near-term prospects for a lot of these stocks.
Without the Bank of America-Fleet announcement today, we'd be looking at a much more sluggish performance for bank stocks in the near term. There are still a number of questions about the economy.
Fundamentals will probably be in line with expectations but that won't be the catalyst to move these stocks,
Given the absence of investment banking relationships, these analysts can be less delicate.
They'll have to do some work to get the branches up to snuff.