Without the Bank of America-Fleet announcement today, we'd be looking at a much more sluggish performance for bank stocks in the near term. There are still a number of questions about the economy.
They said the odds of First Union doing a merger of equals in the next 24 months is 10 percent or less, ... and in the third year it is probably about 33 percent. They suggested there are only a limited number of players out there that would fit with them and many of them are currently engaged in digesting their own acquisitions.
Today's actions were pretty well discounted and well telegraphed.
Given the absence of investment banking relationships, these analysts can be less delicate.
For an institution that was brought to its depths, Citigroup has built one of the strongest franchises in the world, not just the United States.
Expectations for the brokers have turned somewhat more negative. We're not terribly excited about the near-term prospects for a lot of these stocks.
In that environment banks should do well psychologically as well as fundamentally.
It defeats the purpose of research.
Fundamentals will probably be in line with expectations but that won't be the catalyst to move these stocks.
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