Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) and US Bancorp (NYSE:USB) Paul Ebeling Wall St Outlook BAC, JPM, WFC, USB

US Stocks fell Friday after news that a court ruled in a Key foreclosure case and prompted players to exit some bank stocks.
The S&P 500 and DJIA recorded their 6th week running of advances despite the pundits calls that stocks are due for a pullback. The S&P 500 found support at its 14 Day Moving Average, which is around 1,262. The index briefly broke below that before bouncing back.

On the Day: the DJIA .DJI dipped 22.55 pts, or 0.19%, to close at 11,674.76, the S&P 500 .SPX closed off 2.35 pts, or 0.18%, at 1,271.50, and the NAS .IXIC tallied up a minus 6.72 pts, or 0.25%, to end the session at 2,703.17.

On the Week: the S&P 500 rose 1.1%, the Dow gained 0.8%, and the leading NAS rose 1.9%.

Players were cautious after the employment report, which showed non-farm payrolls rose a less-than-expected 103,000. But, overall employment for October and November was revised upward to show 70,000 more job gains than previously reported.

The US Labor Department report showed a surprisingly large number of people gave up searching for work, tempering the positive news of a big drop in the unemployment rate.

Analysts said that while the data showed steady, slow progress, it did not meet expectations that had risen on the week.

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) and US Bancorp (NYSE:USB) lost a ruling by Massachusetts’ top court, which said the banks failed to show they held the mortgages at the time they foreclosed. The court decision is the latest on the validity of foreclosures conducted without full documentation, and the ongoing mortgage fiasco could prove costly for the banks. The news turned the market lower but some said the reaction was overdone. Wells Fargo shares gave up 2% at 31.50 and US Bancorp eased 0.8% to 25.09. The KBW Bank index .BKX lost 0.9%.

The S&P financial index .GSPF rallied more than 10% in December as players searched for bargains at the year end.

The mortgage issue has been overhanging banks, prompting an uproar last year that led lenders such as Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Ally Financial Inc to temporarily stop seizing homes.

On the Upside, the energy sector capped declines as Diamond Offshore (NYSE:DO) rose 4.9% to 70.57 after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) upgraded the driller. Goldman also upgraded Baker Hughes Inc (BHI), sending its shares up 3.2% at 56.60.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) 93.15, +0.05, and UPS (NYSE:UPS) 72.15, -0.34 saw their shares slip on selling spurred by news of an investigation by the Department of Justice regarding actions by the firms to block customers from 3rd party shipping consultants and negotiators. Both stocks recovered nicely.
Earnings season gets under way next week with the latest from DJIA component Alcoa (NYSE:AA) 16.42, +0.06. Immucor (NASDAQ:BLUD) 20.96, +1.65 shares set a new 8 month high on the back of better-than-expected earnings, but Liz Claiborne (NYSE:LIZ) 6.01, -0.89 missed and that sent its shares below their 200 Day Moving Average to a 3 month low.

The USD ended the day + 0.3% against a collection of competing currencies. The “Greenback” gained 2.6% for the week; that was its best weekly performance since November.

Most of the move has come against the Euro, which set today a 3 month low of 1.291 after yield spreads widened on the sovereign debt of countries in the EuroZone’s periphery.

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Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jan 10th, 2011and filed underCommodities, Companies, Economics, Economy, Emerging Markets, Energy, Equities, Equities, Exclusive, Financials, Foreign Exchange, Futures, Health, Heffernan Capital Management, Hot Topic, In Depth, Industrials, Latest News, Market News, Meat & Livestock, Media, Metals, News & Events, Pennystocks, Retail & Consumer, Special Reports, Technology, Telecoms, Transport, US Companies, USA, World News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site