barclays will ge coming out with trading update on 07.05.2009 It is expected to report profits higher than market expectations.

A good Buy Medium to Long term

Barclays faces 17bn shortfall

Interesting reading skinny.
If that's the case for BARC what about RBS and LLOY? They have already gone to the market but I can't see how they could be expected to increase their capital any further. Doesn't bear thinking about. Unless of course these requirements were included in their last capital raising schemes.

These are merely proposals being hyped by journos, cross the bridge when you come to it.

wrong thread but you will all see:

Bank of America loses $5.2bn20-01-2010 12:48


Bank of America posted a more than doubled fourth quarter net loss of $5.2bn as the cost of repaying its TARP bail-out cash took its toll.

Losses per share came in at 60c against market forecasts of 52c. Stripping out TARP, there was a net loss for the quarter of $194m, down from $1.8bn.

There an additional provision for credit losses of $10.1bn, though this was $1.6bn lower than the third quarter but $1.6bn higher than the same period a year earlier.

Non-interest income was up sharply due to an improvement in trading and significantly higher income from investment and brokerage services, equity investments and investment banking, it added.

"While it's disappointing to report a loss for the fourth quarter, there were a number of important accomplishments worth noting," said chief executive Brian T. Moynihan.

"First, we repaid the American taxpayer, with interest, for the TARP investment. Second, we have taken steps to strengthen our balance sheet through successful securities offerings. And third, all of our non-credit businesses recorded positive contributions to our result," he said.

For the full year, BoA lost $2.2bn against a profit of $2.56bn, while losses per share were 29c against earnings of 54c.

US open: Wall Street tumbles20-01-2010 15:11


The Dow dropped more than 100 points in the first five minutes of trading as investors consider a mixed bag of company results and fresh economic data.

Across the market, the Dow Jones is down 177 at 10,548, the Nasdaq Composite is off 43 at 2,278, while the broader S&P 500 has fallen 18 points to 1,133.

On the economic front, housing starts fell 4% to a 557,000 unit annual rate in December. Economists only expected a drop to 572,000.

Elsewhere, building permits beat forecasts, rising to a 653,000 unit annual rate last month from 589,000 in November.

The Producer Price Index increased 0.2% in December after climbing 1.8% in the previous month.

Banks are also dominating early trading after Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon and Morgan Stanley all issued fourth quarter figures before the bell.

A strong performance from its asset management and wealth management arms helped Bank of New York Mellon swing into the black in the fourth quarter, offsetting weakness in the core lending arm.

The bank reported ongoing fourth quarter income of $712m, or $0.59c per share, compared with $50m, or $0.04, in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a loss of $2.44bn, or $2.04, in the third quarter of 2009.

Bank of America posted a more than doubled fourth quarter net loss of $5.2bn as the cost of repaying its TARP bail-out cash took its toll.

Losses per share came in at 60c against market forecasts of 52c. Stripping out TARP, there was a net loss for the quarter of $194m, down from $1.8bn.

Wells Fargo's fourth-quarter net income came to $2.82bn, or 8c a share, compared with a loss of $2.73bn, or 84c a share, last year. Wells said earnings per share were reduced by 47c to pay dividends on the government's stake in the company.

Earnings from Morgan Stanley came in below market expectations. Earnings from continuing operations in the fourth quarter were $413m, or 14 cents a share. The median value of earnings per share forecasts from analysts was 42 cents.

Revenue tumbled to $6.84bn from $8.43bn in the third quarter.

Away from the banks, IT services company IBM reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings and revenues after the bell yesterday. The company upgraded its earnings guidance for the full year to at least $11 per share.

Good news for defensive outfits in the next couple of days over hear IMHO.

got caught with a few VED, so in the hope that gold recovers soon have bought somemore to average down a bit.

Averaging down is dangerous, Gold! Good luck.

bought in too high, so got to suffer now.

Under the kosh now.

re-trace to 270p?

Looking for a higher low then will buy for SIPP.

Best of a bad bunch imo.

If it does then I'll be back in. My last foray on BARC was from 276 to 310.
Just wish I hadn't recently played LLOY as it is getting panned today as well..

dumped all banks last week looking for re-entry 10% lower.

Tories back Obama's bank limit plans


Mr Osborne said the Conservatives would follow the US lead.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne has told the BBC that if the Conservatives win the general election they will copy US plans to limit the size of banks. Under the proposals outlined by President Barack Obama, US retail banks will face curbs on their riskier activities.

This could lead to the largest US banks being broken up.

The Treasury said it would consider President Obama's comments on bank reform "very carefully".

BBC business editor Robert Peston said Mr Osborne's comments would "generate profound fear in the boardrooms of Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland".

Shares in both banks fell sharply on Tuesday, with Royal Bank of Scotland losing 7% - the biggest decline on the UK's main FTSE 100 share index. Barclays lost 5.9%.

Under President Obama's proposals, retail banks would be banned from using their own money in risky financial transactions.

This would prevent them from investing in hedge and private equity funds, or engaging in so-called proprietary trading.

"This is a welcome move by President Obama that accords very much with our thinking," said Mr Osborne.

"I have said consistently that we should look at separating retail banking from activities like large scale propriety trading - and that this was best done internationally."

Obama's bold move on banks begins to justify the hype of his election


Prosaic is what President Barack Obama's first year in the Oval Office had become for many voters. But yesterday's declaration of war on Wall Street will have given his presidency a shot in the arm and a boost in the polls.

Electoral setbacks in Massachusetts and disappointment over health care reform have left a pall of mediocrity over the White House, especially when compared with the hype and hysteria which preceded Obama's swearing in.

Coach Roach outflanked by Mayweather in poetry but not proseHe's now proposing the "Volcker Rule" a separation of banking between its riskier elements (proprietary trading, hedge funds and private equity investments for a bank's own profit) and more vanilla commercial banking.

Assuming Congress votes it through, the Volcker Rule will serve a double purpose. First it will warm the hearts of Middle America. Listen to Obama's words yesterday and they were addressed to "the folks who are hurting", the 7m Americans who have lost their jobs after Wall Street's "binge of irresponsibility".

Second, it will end banking's moral hazard. Risk will be more transparent and borne by the appropriate groups. Shareholders and creditors of financial firms undertaking proprietary trading and the like will now take the profits and bear the losses, rather than just the former with the latter forced on the taxpayer. Capital, and its trading, will become more expensive but that's no bad thing and is a necessary part of repricing risk, a process that's far from complete.

That said, many of the banks' worst abuses in the credit boom were carried out in the name of client services and not on proprietary trading desks, hedge funds or in private equity deals. Avoiding a repeat of that will need carefully drafted legislation.

Where does this leave the UK?

George Osborne was quick last night to welcome the move as it chimes with Tory thinking on separating banks an Obama-style levy is also more likely now too. Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, will welcome the White House's initiative, although Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, will probably find things to criticise.

He prefers internal separation of a bank's functions through regulation rather than legal separation.

But the City would continue, just organised very differently another Big Bang if you like.

But on the day Goldman Sachs revealed more "massive bonuses", to use Obama's term, Wall Street finally went too far. In his view, banking is no longer just socially unacceptable, it's politically unacceptable too and must be defeated, like any opponent.

Looking at 50dma and 3

making a nice profit on this one now....3 very welcome.

Every division has been profitable, with even Barclaycard and the UK retail bank bucking the economic gloom.

The numbers will be flattered by the 6.2bn profit on the sale of Barclays Global Investors, the asset management business bought by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK - news) last year. That sale and Barclays' strong performance through one of the most challenging periods on record will allow it to set aside 8bn in capital to help rebuild its financial strength, bolstering its core tier one ratio to an industry-leading 9.6pc. The amount will also significantly reduce the 17bn of capital that Credit Suisse estimates Barclays needs to find over the next three years to meet new regulatory guidelines.

Every division has been profitable, with even Barclaycard and the UK retail bank bucking the economic gloom.

The numbers will be flattered by the 6.2bn profit on the sale of Barclays Global Investors, the asset management business bought by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK - news) last year. That sale and Barclays' strong performance through one of the most challenging periods on record will allow it to set aside 8bn in capital to help rebuild its financial strength, bolstering its core tier one ratio to an industry-leading 9.6pc. The amount will also significantly reduce the 17bn of capital that Credit Suisse estimates Barclays needs to find over the next three years to meet new regulatory guidelines.