Financials Starting To Strengthen Today

The financial stocks are beginning to strengthen today, helping push up the major market averages. Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM are still down over 1%, but well off the lows set this morning when the weekly jobless claims put a damper on the futures. Bank of America Corporation BAC is back near the flat line to $13.40, a loss of 2 cents. Goldman Sachs GS is particularly weak, dragging on the Financial Sector ETF XLF, down $1.86 to $146.21. Goldman's estimates for its third quarter earnings were just cut yesterday at Deutsche Bank, saying it sees weakness across the board in revenue growth this quarter. Citigroup Inc. C is down 2 cents to $3.86, a loss of 0.5%. Citigroup has consistently been the most actively traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange, having traded already over 100 million shares.