News Summary (ABT, GS, BAC, ARO)

The Senate passed the most significant increase in the regulation of US banks yesterday since the Great Depression. The lawmakers placed new restrictions on the nation's biggest banks, reining in the Federal Reserve and forming a major new consumer-protection division for mortgage and credit-card products. The Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, "Today's bipartisan vote follows many months of hard work. The House and Senate have now each passed strong bills that protect consumers, limit risk-taking by large institutions, and address the problem of 'too-big-to-fail.'" The healthcare products conglomerate Abbott Laboratories ABT fell almost 2% to $45.68 in the pre-market session today after the company announced its plans to buy Indian drug maker Piramal Healthcare’s branded generic drugs unit in a $3.7 billion deal. At 10:30 am, ABT was trading at $46.05, down 0.95%. Analysts are expecting Goldman Sachs GS to pay $1 billion or more to settle with the SEC. This is far higher than was paid by Bank of America BAC earlier this year. A former SEC attorney said that the SEC will require "a good explanation and justification for the number." It seems that the public expects the SEC to extract a minimum of $1 billion from GS. By 10:50 am, GS had moved up 3.24% to $140.45. Aeropostale ARO announced Q1 results late yesterday. The teen retailer’s net income has risen to $45.4 million, or $0.48 a share, from $31.7 million, or $0.31 a share in the year-ago period. The analysts were expecting an EPS of $0.46. Total net sales climbed to $463.6 million from $408 million last year. ARO is expecting to earn $0.45 to $0.48 a share in fiscal 2010 Q2. Following the news, the company’s shares climbed 4.43% to $28.48 by 10:54 am today. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.