Stearns’ earnings today were atrocious. Never mind the fact that sales and
trading revenue slumped by an eye-popping 88%; Bear also, uniquely, saw its
investment-banking revenues fall as well.
Interestingly, the bank’s stock
is unchanged in early trading, and a good 15% above its lows of last month.
I don’t buy the argument that this is because of the announced share buy-back;
more likely, it’s a bit of a short-squeeze on speculators who strongly suspected
that Bear would fall short of expectations.
And there’s another aspect to the share price, too: there’s simply more confidence
in the financial system now than there was during the darkest days of August.
Given that Goldman Sachs is doing so astonishingly
well, I still – for the third day running! – have a
that some kind of corner has been turned.