Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) is feeling some market love so far today, as its stock rises by nearly 1% well before the noon hour -- in stark contrast to the falling fortunes of both the Dow�and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC ) .
Financials as a whole are looking peppy today, as Citigroup (NYSE: C ) is watching its stock tick up by nearly 1.25%, putting it in the same company as Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) . The only drag on the sector today is JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) , which started out the morning on a slight upside but began losing momentum between coffee break and lunch time.
Good news for (most) big banks
B of A seems to have behaved itself over the weekend, a good thing considering how its website, app, and telephone outages got everyone's attention a week earlier, and not in a good way. A lack of bad news could be enough reason for the big guy's rise today, but some good news for Wells Fargo could have had a lifting effect, as well: Stifel Nicolaus gave the bank a nice, new buy rating today, and its stock has been rising ever since.
Some of Wells' glow could very well have rubbed off on Citi, but some decent news of its own may also be at work here. Specifically, I'm talking about the parting of ways�between Citigroup and some business segments of Citi Capital Advisors, which was announced last week. This development could be seen by investors as another move toward streamlining the bank, and concentrating on more profitable sectors, much as the recent sale�of its Brazilian consumer finance unit was designed to accomplish.
As for JPMorgan, its malaise could be due to some disquieting news last week on the murky-mortgage front. A passel of internal emails, now aired out in a Manhattan courtroom, appear to show that the Bank of Dimon deliberately bundled crummy mortgages into securities that it then sold to investors, leading those buyers to believe that the instruments were top-notch. Naturally, the bank denies these charges.
As Foolish, long-term investors, we of course need to keep the one-day jumps and jives of a stock in perspective. Sometimes they do indeed correspond to changes in the underlying business, but sometimes they're simply squiggles that we can safely ignore.�
With that in mind, for today at least, things are looking up for B of A's stock. Who says Mondays are a drag?
To learn more about the most-talked-about bank out there, check out our�in-depth company report on Bank of America. The report details Bank of America's prospects, including three reasons to buy and three reasons to sell. Just�click here�to get access.
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