Online Brokers Catch A Bid (SCHW, AMTD, ETFC, IBKR)

This is the new official 48-hour period to be known in the future as GOVERNMENT BACKSTOP DAYS.  While financial stocks are a big beneficiary of this, the moves being seen in online trading firms are just as large or even larger.  Here are some of the pre-market moves and we also included a change from the intraday lows of yesterday morning.

• Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) up 11% at $26.52 pre-market, up 33% from yesterday’s low.
• TD AMERITRADE (AMTD) up 7% at $20.90 pre-market, up 25% from yesterday’s lows.
• E*TRADE (ETFC) up 21% at $4.00 pre-market, up 54% from yesterday’s lows.
• Interactive Brokers (IBKR) up 19.5% at $23.51 pre-market, up 28% from yesterday’s lows.

Jon C. Ogg
September 19, 2008