Friday, July 17, 2009

Quick Notes for the Day - July 17

BofA, Citi Quarterly Report - Bank of America and Citigroup both reported earnings on Friday morning. BofA reported that it earned $3.2 billion (33 cents a share) in the second quarter compared to $3.4 billion (72 cents) a year ago. Most analysts had expected 28 cents a share for BofA. Also, this quarter BofA was able to realize several one time gains from different capital raising moves.

BofA also said this morning that they had made $110.6 billion (1.23 billion per day) in first mortgages during the quarter. Of the number, 71% were for refinances and 29% were for home purchases.

Meanwhile, Citigroup reported a second quarter profit of $4.3 billion (49 cents a share). This included an $11 billion pre-tax gain from its joint venture with Smith Barney. Analysts had predicted the company to lose 37 cents a share in the quarter. Revenue in the quarter was $30 billion.

Housing Starts Go Up Again - Construction of new housing rose for the second straight month according to the Commerce Department report released Friday. Starts rose 3.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted 582,000 annualized units. This is the highest number since November 2008. Starts of new single-family homes rose by 14.4% to 470,000 in June, while starts of large apartment units fell 29.4% to 101,000. Building permits, a leading indicator of housing construction, rose 8.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000.

GE Posts Quarterly Report - General Electric reported second-quarter net income of $2.67 billion (24 cents a share) versus $5.07 billion (51 cents) last year. Revenue came in at $39.08 billion which was below expectations of $41.66 billion.

Also, CEO Jeff Immelt stated that GE was still in the midst of raising cash. "With the dividend reduced from $6.7 billion to $2.3 billion...we'll save $13 billion of cash in '09 and '10," he said during a conference call with analysts. "I would say we're ahead of plan here with very solid prospects for the rest of the year."

No comments: