Midday movers: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Lexmark

Stocks are higher as investors' worst fears for JPMorgan and China fail to materialize.

By MSN Money Partner Jul 13, 2012 1:05PM
Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com 

Better-than-expected earnings reports from JPMorgan (JPM), as well as Wells Fargo (WFC), kick-started the second-quarter earnings season, one in which investors were more cautious than they have been in recent years.

JPMorgan took a $4.4 billion second-quarter charge on its London CIO operations and restated its first-quarter results lower based on the losses associated with the "London Whale." The bank's CFO Doug Braunstein pegged the trading loss through Thursday at $5.8 billion, which may have been less than some expected, and the bank said its CIO synthetic credit group has been closed down and all of its London CIO managers have been let go.

Investors responded positively to the results and the disclosures, sending shares of the Dow component up 6%.

Wells Fargo, which also reported second-quarter results, saw its profits rise 17% on the strength of heavy refinance activity and its shares rose 3% near noon.

Among the notable gainers Friday are Presidential Life (PLFE), up over 36%, on news it will be acquired by Athene Annuity for $14 per share, and Kinross Gold (KGC), up more than 6%, as takeover speculation circulated, possibly fueled by an article in Canada's Globe and Mail.

Among Friday's noteworthy market losers are Bridgepoint Education (BPI), down over 26%, after disclosing one of the accreditors for its Ashford University is requiring a report on its accreditation requirements, and Lexmark (LXK), down nearly 15%, after the company reduced its second-quarter earnings per share and revenue outlook.

0Comments

DATA PROVIDERS

Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.

Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.

Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.

Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.

STOCK SCOUTER

StockScouter rates stocks from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, using a system of advanced mathematics to determine a stock's expected risk and return. Ratings are displayed on a bell curve, meaning there will be fewer ratings of 1 and 10 and far more of 4 through 7.

125
125 rated 1
272
272 rated 2
423
423 rated 3
589
589 rated 4
696
696 rated 5
590
590 rated 6
666
666 rated 7
435
435 rated 8
261
261 rated 9
144
144 rated 10
12345678910

Top Picks

SYMBOLNAMERATING
ABTAbbott Laboratories10
AIGAmerican International Group Inc10
AMTDTD Ameritrade Holding Corp10
ATVIActivision Blizzard Inc10
CACA Inc10
More
Fidelity Brokerage Services, Member NYSE, SIPC. (c) 2011 FMR LLC. All rights reserved

VIDEO ON MSN MONEY

ABOUT

Top Stocks provides analysis about the most noteworthy stocks in the market each day, combining some of the best content from around the MSN Money site and the rest of the Web.

Contributors include professional investors and journalists affiliated with MSN Money.

Follow us on Twitter @topstocksmsn.