Bank Of America May Open Down 10% Tomorrow

It is Bank of America’s (NYSE: BAC) turn to sell off 10%. Deutsche Bank dropped 8.9% in trading today. Royal Bank of Scotland fell 12.3%, and Societe Generale 8.6%. The reasons for the panic selling in Europe are not unlike the reasons Bank of America dropped to $6.01 three weeks ago, from a 52-week high of $15.31. The economy is weak and financial firms may take huge hits to their balance sheets

Joseph Ackermann, who is about to retire as CEO of Deutsche Bank said a number of EU banks would not survive if they had to recognize the value of Greek debt on their balance sheets. The problem in the US is different, of course. American banks face a lawsuit which claims that 17 of them sold mortgage backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The loss on the securities was $200 billion. It is too early to know what the government will try to get back from the banks.

Bank of America continues to the weakest of the large US money center banks as far as Wall St. is concerned. This has been supported by rumors and fact. There have been reports that B of A will spin off its Merrill Lynch to raise money. There has also been a news report that the financial firm will fire 30,000 people. Wall St. is particularly concerned about the balance sheet of mortgage bank Countrywide, which B of  A took over at the beginning of the credit crisis.

Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan said the company did not need money and then promptly took $5 billion from Warren Buffett on terms not favorable to the bank. B of A also sold half of its position in China Construction Bank Corp at time when shares of the People’s Republic financial institution were relatively low.

B of A shares began to recover on a few modest pieces of good news. Those are now being overwhelmed by a realistic view of the firm’s situation.

Douglas A. McIntyre