Financial Update for April 14, 2009

TSX extends rally on commodity gains

Canada's got the best of both worlds. You’ve got the financials and all the resources kicking in," said Pyle. "So the litmus test now will be adding on to this week because now we're less than 200 points from the high we saw in January."

• TSX +98.50 to finish higher for a 3rd straight session, extending the “spring rally’ to a 6th week, with financial issues buoyed by optimism that quarterly U.S. bank results this week will show the sector has stabilized after being shaken hard in the global financial crisis.
• DOW -25.57Traders were uneasy after a New York Times report that the U.S. Treasury has directed GM to lay the groundwork for a potential bankruptcy filing by June 1.
• Dollar +.39c to 82.01USD
• Oil -$1.19 to $50.05US per barrel.
• Gold +$12.50 to $895.80USD per ounce
• Canadian 5 yr bond yields -.01bps to 1.85 four weeks ago it was 1.86. The spread between the 5 year bond yield and the Merix 5 year fixed rate is now 2.09%.
• http://www.financialpost.com/markets/market_data/money-yields-can_us.html


Wells Fargo to post record US$3B profit Wants to repay US$25-billion bailout cash Jonathan Stempel And Elinor Comlay, Reuters

Wells Fargo & Co. said it expects to post a record US$3-billion first-quarter profit, causing its shares to soar and providing a welcome jolt to the broader stock market and banking sector.

The fourth-largest U. S. bank is the first major U. S. lender to indicate how it fared in the January-March period.

Coming as the government performs "stress tests" on 19 major banks, the preliminary quarterly results suggest that lenders focused on traditional banking activities may handle the recession better than analysts and investors expect.

"In this terrible environment, to exceed on the upside is going to raise the bar pretty high," said Matt McCormick, an analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati.

Wells Fargo said quarterly profit after preferred stock dividends was US$2.3-billion to US$2.4-billion, or US55¢ per share, on revenue of about US$20-billion.
Analysts on average expected profit of US25¢ per share on revenue of US$18.81-billion, Reuters said. Wells Fargo expects to report full quarterly results on April 22.