Diversified Banks

Shares of Apollo Investment Corporation (Nasdaq: AINV) are up nearly 5% today after Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) upgraded them from Market Perform to Outperform. Wells Fargo said that "our more favorable outlook is based on our view that AINV remains well positioned to capitalize on a growing set of...

Macquarie Group’s (OTC: MQBKY) shares slipped 7% on a weak outlook, and concerns over the performance of its equity capital markets business. Macquarie, which is known for high pay packets, forecast that its second half profits could be in line with popular consensus of $926 million for the year...

• Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB) posted better-than-estimated fourth quarter results of $1.20, beating Zacks estimates of $1.05, on inline revenues of $1.1 billion.  The company said it sees full year earnings of $4.50 a share • International Flavors and Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) reported fourth quarter...

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) are trading more than 3% down today, which has hurt Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares(ETF) (NYSE: FAS). FAS dropped 4.4% so far and has a volume of 28.77M traded shares. Market Vectors Gold Miners (ETF) (NYSE: GDX) lost 3.4...

Stocks have been trading unpredictably over the past four weeks as investors are on the lookout for signs of stability in the global economic recovery. Over the past couple of weeks, concerns surrounding the unmanageable level of debt for Greece, Spain and Portugal and China’s decision to take...

Major corporations including Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) have increased their dividends. Talking with CNBC, Matt McCormick, banking analyst and portfolio manager with Bahl & Gaynor Investments Counsel, opined that the banking sector is unlikely to follow suit....

Banco Santander (NYSE: STD), the Euro Zone's largest bank, said its fourth-quarter profit rose 13% helped by the performance of the bank's Brazil and U.K. operations. The bank earned $3 billion in the quarter, beating analyst estimates. Loan-loss provisions rose 18% from the year earlier period,...

Analyst Douglas Anmuth at Barclays Capital (ADR) (NYSE: BCS) has maintained a 1-Overweight rating for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). Yahoo has made changes in its core search, which Barclays believes could provide greater control and transparency to advertisers. According to Barclays, the change...

BofA/Merrill initiated coverage of Barclays (NYSE: BCS) with a “buy” rating. BCS’ shares have gained 1.93% to $18.97 in pre-market trading.

Banco Bradesco SA (NYSE: BBD) has been upgraded by Morgan Stanley Research. The Brazilian bank is now considered to be an 'equal weight' stock. The report published this morning notes "Following a difficult 2009, we think bank earnings are set to accelerate this year as the Brazilian economy picks...

Comerica (NYSE: CMA) added 112 bps to its Tier 1 common ratio, which stood at 8.2% at the end of CY2009. Comerica did not show any meaningful increase in its commercial loan growth, although there was a significant increase in its core deposit growth, which increased by 25% during 2009. According...

• ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) posted fourth quarter earnings of $1.27 a share, beating Zacks of $1.19 a share, versus $1.55 a year ago.  The company reported revenues of $89.84 billion • Humana (NYSE:HUM) posted fourth quarter earnings of $1.48, in-line with Zacks estimates, versus $1.07 on revenues of $...

Analyst John Reucassel of BMO Capital Markets maintains his "outperform" rating on TD Bank (NYSE: TD). The target price for TD is set to $74. According to media reports, TD Waterhouse’s UK operations, a wholly owned subsidiary of TD Bank, will acquire roughly 24,000 customer accounts and £467...

In an interview with CNBC, Bob Diamond, President, Barclays Plc (NYSE: BCS) said, "There is absolutely no evidence to say big is bad or big is riskier". He extended his support to multinational, integrated regulations for the financial sector. He said that banks did not grow big out of their own...