Annual return of 118.79% - See How Click here now!
Sep 30, 2008 -- Wachovia (NYSE: WB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) today announced intentions to sell its retail bank, corporate and investment bank and wealth management businesses to Citigroup. Wachovia Corporation will remain a public company with two main operating subsidiaries: Wachovia Securities, the nation's third largest brokerage firm, and Evergreen Asset Management, a leading provider of asset management services. "During recent weeks, the financial landscape has changed significantly and presented us with unprecedented challenges," said Robert K. Steel, CEO and President of Wachovia. "Today's announcement is the best alternative for the company, enabling a resolution on the Golden West portfolio." Under terms of the transaction, Citigroup will pay $2.1 billion to Wachovia and assume the senior and subordinated debt of Wachovia Corporation. The transaction is expected to close before year-end. It has been approved by directors of both companies and is subject to shareholder approval of Wachovia and the appropriate regulatory approvals. Customers of both companies should continue banking as usual, and feel confident that their deposits are secure. Also, employees and vendors should continue to operate business as usual.
Sep 30, 2008 -- Expert Group, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: EXPT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is pleased to announce that the Company continues to build on its successful relationship with CitiMortgage. Expert Group has had a broker agreement with CitiMortgage for over a year after the Company met a series of stringent criteria in order for CitiMortgage to approve the relationship. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, CitiMortgage is a member of Citigroup and focuses on providing the highest quality mortgage products as part of an expansive portfolio of financial services that includes banking, mortgage banking, insurance, asset management, and credit cards. CitiMortgage is one of the strong wholesale lending institutions that Expert utilizes in helping provide its high quality products and services to its clientele. The agreement with CitiMortgage enables Expert to have access to Citi's software, which permits Expert to perform expedited and comprehensive approval of loans. This in turn enables Expert to convert a higher percentage of loan applications into closed loan revenues. "We are excited about our growing relationship with a solid financial institution such as CitiMortgage, which recently announced the acquisition of Wachovia Bank. Expert Group will continue to align itself with banks like Citigroup in order to keep providing the most up to date products and services to our customers," stated Robert Rico, CEO.
Sep 30, 2008 -- Bank of America (NYSE: BAC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) today announced the launch of Reserve Account Services, an expanded suite of specialized accounts and services that enable securities broker-dealers and futures commission merchants to keep larger balances in the reserve accounts they maintain for the protection of client assets. "With this expanded suite of capabilities and the size and strength of our balance sheet, Reserve Account Services enables broker-dealers and FCMs to consolidate larger balances of reserve funds with one bank," said Kathleen Gowin, Bank of America's financial services treasury executive. "This reduces the confusion, complexity and opportunity for error that can result from a large number of duplicative banking relationships." Reserve Account Services offers broker-dealers two types of accounts, trust custody accounts or commercial money market deposit accounts, both of which will assist broker-dealers in complying with SEC Rule 15c3-3. For FCMs, Reserve Account Services offers trust custody accounts that similarly support compliance with CFTC Rules 1.20 and 30.7. "Bank of America's Reserve Account Services demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation in liquidity solutions for our clients," said Greg Kavanaugh, senior product management executive in Global Product Solutions at Bank of America.
Sep 30, 2008 -- optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXPS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) today announced the rollout of seven significant new features to its award winning brokerage platform. The new enhancements focus on investor education, strategy evaluation and trade execution. These unique and proprietary features are part of optionsXpress' fifth major site release of 2008. One such tool is the probability calculator, a new, powerful, and interactive tool built into the tremendously popular Trade Calculator. This new feature allows traders to bring their trading to a new analytical level - in an intuitive and easy to use interface. An interactive chart and tabular section provide traders with various outcome probabilities, including the probability of touching and finishing higher or lower than a specified price. A profit & loss overlay combined with easy to move probability bars make graphical analysis a snap. In addition, traders can utilize a reverse probability calculation to find specific price points for further trading analysis. "We are constantly evaluating and implementing upgrades to our platform to provide the best overall experience for our customers," said David Fisher, chief executive officer of optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. "These changes will improve functionality for optionXpress customers across the board from first time investors to experts."
Market Wrap for September 30th, 2008 Tuesday's session marked the S&P 500's best day in six years after having its worst day in 21 years on Monday. Buying interest was fueled by short-covering, bargain hunting and increased optimism that the government will reach an agreement on a financial relief plan before the end of the week. The stock market settled near session highs will all ten sectors posting a gain. Financials led the way with a 13.1% gain, followed by a 5.8% rise in energy stocks. The utilities sector underperformed on a relative basis with a gain of 1.3%. The S&P's advance of 58.34 points, or 5.3%, is more than half of Monday's plummet of 106.85 points, or 8.8%. The catalyst for the selling on Monday was a rejection of the financial relief bill by the House of Representatives, which sparked concerns that the increased turmoil in the credit markets would weaken the broader economy. To that point, credit markets did in fact tighten further. Overnight dollar Libor -- which measures the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans -- spiked 431 basis points to 6.88%. Libor increased across all terms, which range from overnight to 12 months, indicating that banks were very reluctant to lend to each other. The Fed's aggressive measures to increase liquidity, including a $20 billion 28-day repo operation earlier this session, did have some benefits as the session progressed. Prior to the stock market open, the fed funds rate -- which is the interest rate that depository institutions lend their Federal Reserve balances to other depository institutions -- rose as high as 7.00%, according to Reuters. The rate then retreated to 1.50%, which is below the Fed's target rate of 2.00%. As stocks rose, Treasuries gave up much of the previous session's gains as investors showed a greater willingness to take on risk. The benchmark 10-year note dropped more than two points, sending its yield up to 3.83%. The dollar rallied 2.6% against a basket of world currencies, getting a boost on news that another European financial firm needed to be bailed out by European governments. The strength in the dollar helped limit the gain in commodities to only 0.7%, although crude oil managed to rally 5.0% to $101.24 per barrel after dropping 10% in the previous session. The extreme moves in the stock market over the previous two sessions were a fitting end to a tumultuous third quarter. For the quarter, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell 4.4%, 9.2% and 9.0% respectively.
ABOUT INVESTSOURCE, INC.: WIN an 8 day 7 nights Caribbean Getaway, GO TO: www.investsourceinc.com.
To hear "The Fastest 60 Seconds in the Small-Cap Market," please go to www.ceo-corner.com This opinion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. This material is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities. InvestSource, Inc. has prepared all material herein based upon information believed to be reliable. The information contained herein is not guaranteed by InvestSource, Inc. to be accurate, and should not be considered to be all-inclusive. The companies that are discussed in this release have not given an opinion or approved the statements made in this release.
InvestSource, Inc. is not a licensed broker, broker dealer, market maker, investment banker, investment advisor, analyst or underwriter. InvestSource, Inc. affiliates, officers, directors and employees may also have bought, or may buy the shares discussed in this opinion and may profit in the event of a rise in value. InvestSource, Inc. will not advise as to when it decides to sell and does not, and will not, offer any opinion as to when others should buy or sell; each investor must make that decision based on his or her judgment of the market. Please consult your broker before purchasing or selling any securities mentioned herein. InvestSource has agreed to be compensated 10,000,000 unrestricted shares of EXPT for services rendered. To view full disclaimers, please go to http://investsourceinc.com/content/disclaimer.php (disclaimers).
CONTACT: InvestSource, Inc e-mail: info@investsourceinc.com WWW: http://www.investsourceinc.com
M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com.
More News:
Market Updates |
Stock Alerts |
All Trading News |
Stock Index
About TradingMarkets | Contact | Advertise | Careers | Link to Us | Site Map | Help | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Return Policy | Testimonials | Feedback
