Looking at Wall Street right now, you would never know that we just came out of a recession. And it is worth noting that for most regular folks, the end of the recession is merely a technical economic detail. Individuals still face a number of financial challenges, and with the weak labor market, it is little surprise that things most of Main Street is still wonder whether things are going to pick up. For thousands of Wall Street folks, though, that is not much of an issue. They just found out that they will be enjoying record bonuses.
Wall Street firms …read more

One of the realities of banking is that there are fees involved. And, interestingly, the bigger the bank, the bigger the fees. It is rather frustrating to read about bailouts of big banks, only to find that very large percentages of their profits come from fees. So, not only are your taxes going to help prop up these big banks, but you also prop them up through the fees you pay. The Service Employees International Union estimates (since banks don’t reveal it) that J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America all make more than 70% of their profits from …read more

Thanks to good news coming out of the banking industry, Tuesday saw the stock market rally after a slow start. Many experts are saying Timothy Geithner, the Unites States Secretary of the Treasury, played a vital role in increases confidence in the nation’s banks.
By the end of the trading period, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 7,969.6 — up nearly 1.7% on the day. NASDAQ was up 2.2% to 1,643.9, Russell 2000 was up nearly 4% to 470.1 and the S&P’s 500 was up approximately 2% to 850.1.
On Monday, banks suffered mightily on the stock market. On Tuesday, they …read more

In the last few weeks, the United States stock market had been growing at a healthy rate due in large part to renewed confidence in the nation’s financial sector. However, that confidence took a hit on Monday and as a result the stock market suffered.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 3.5% for a total of 290 points. By the end of trading, the Dow was at 7,841.7. Other stock indexes showed similar struggles. The Russell 2000 fell more than 5.5% to 452, the S&P’s 500 dropped more than 4% to 832 and NASDAQ wad down approximately 4% …read more

JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the United States, revealed that the financial institution earned more than two billion dollars in the first quarter of 2009. The company pointed to high quantity trading, mass deposits and the low loan rates as reasons why JPMorgan Chase was able to post much better than anticipated earnings from January through March.
Although the bank took more than $25 billion in United States federal government bailout money, JPMorgan Chase said that it is contemplating paying back the bailout money. The bank also said that they do not believe that they need further bailout …read more

If you have a credit card with JPMorgan Chase, you may have some extra money heading your way. On Friday, the bank announced that it will refund the service charge it began charging for some cardholders at the beginning of the year. The charge was a $10 fee that occurred monthly. The bank said it decided to issue refunds after hearing negative feedback from numerous cardholders.
While the monthly service charge will be refunded, any minimum payment requirements will remain. Some JPMorgan Chase cardholders saw their minimum raise from 2% to 5% at the onset of 2009.
Overall, the banking industry is …read more

After a bit of optimism hit the stock market world on Wednesday, the bad news returned on Thursday. With the market tumbling today, that makes it six poor days out of the last seven.
In fact, Thursday was such a bad day in the stock market that it wiped away the positive gains that occurred on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell to 6,594.4, a loss of more than 280. The Dow hasn’t been this low since the middle months of 2007.
The Standard & Poor’s index also dropped a little bit more than 4% to land on 682.6. The S&P …read more