Monday, April 20, 2009

Reading Today's Wall Street Journal: Bank Profits are UP.

from The Wall Street Journal

Bank of America's first-quarter net income soared to $4.2 billion, helped by contributions from Merrill Lynch, which BofA purchased in January. The results include a $1.9 billion pretax gain on the sale of China Construction Bank shares, and $2.2 billion in gains related to mark-to-market adjustments on certain Merrill Lynch structured notes.

The bank said credit quality deteriorated further across all lines of business as housing prices continued to fall and unemployment rose, leading to higher losses in almost all consumer portfolios.

CEO Ken Lewis cautioned that amid the "welcome" profit news, the company continues to face "extremely difficult challenges primarily from deteriorating credit quality driven by weakness in the economy and growing unemployment."
http://online.wsj.com#mod=djemalertNEWS

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