Friday, February 20, 2009

Bank Stocks: "Unrelenting Annihilation"

A perfect turn of phrase by David Gaffen. Stark reality from MarketBeat:
The destruction in the banking sector has been broad and deep and has taken the shares of the banking companies to lows not seen in 15, 20, or in some cases, 25 years. Bank of America Inc. shares today hit an intraday low of $3.19 a share — a level not seen since August 2, 1984, when the bank traded at $3.17 a share....

...At the end of October 2007, just after the market’s peak, the ten largest financial-services companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index had a combined market capitalization of $1.249 trillion, led by Bank of America Inc., which had a market value of $214.2 billion, making it the seventh-largest corporation in the S&P 500 at the end of that month. As of Thursday, the 10 largest financial-services companies in the S&P had a combined market cap of $298.6 billion — not much more than B of A’s market cap at the peak...MORE
Here's the rondo from Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2.
Music to hunt bankers by: