wfc

Those complex financial instruments known as mortgage-backed securities, which famously caused so much damage in the banking sector and the nation's economy when the housing bubble burst, are causing another problem for some mortgage lenders: the inability to prove that they have a legitimate claim...

The much-awaited third-quarter gross domestic product number to be released Thursday is expected to show a 3.5 percent increase. In the view of most economists, a positive number will mark the end of the recession which began in late 2008. But a positive print in the GDP is so widely expected that...

Earnings at most big banks outpaced expectations in the third quarter. Some banks, like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC), could even brag that they'd brought in record income so far this year. But for many investors, the question is whether better-than-forecast results are...

The latest slew of third-quarter earnings reports gave stocks a lift Wednesday, and well that they should. Yahoo (YHOO) said its profit more than tripled, white-shoe financial giant Morgan Stanley (MS) swung to the black for the first time in a year and Wells Fargo (WFC) blew past Street estimates....

Short sellers are not willing to bet that bank stocks will take a sudden hit as they move into earnings season. On the contrary, they have decided to pull out of these shares and put their money elsewhere. The "wisdom of the shorts" is yet another indication that the country's largest financial...

Citigroup (C), trying to recreate its image, intends to reduce the number of brick and mortar branches and intensify its online-banking presence. The new plan will be presented to Citi's board members in October, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Citi will keep branches concentrated...

A year after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and turned a credit crunch largely confined to Wall Street into a full-blown global economic crisis, it's worth considering how much has changed -- and how much hasn't. Notwithstanding last fall's headlines declaring the death of Wall Street, it's...

There has been a great deal of talk in the financial media of late about bank's loan values, which may be vastly overinflated due to flexibility offered by accounting rules. The SEC revealed that it sent a memo to a number of CFOs at banks, telling them, "Clear and transparent disclosure about how...

Jonathan Weil at Bloomberg has quite a contention: on a mark-to-market basis, a number of banks -- such as Regions Financial (RF), SunTrust Banks (STI), and KeyCorp (KEY) -- would have negative regulatory equity. Meanwhile, others -- including giants like Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC)...

The seemingly-improbable stock market rally has faced much skepticism, but the bulls have continued to win out, as the S&P 500 ($INX) has now rallied 50 percent from its March lows. With each advance, however, the odds shift slightly more in favor of the bear camp having another day in the sun....