TheTradingReport

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – December 4, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Citibank (C), KeyCorp (KEY), Ford (F), Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ABT) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Ben’s Confirmation Testimony

The stress tests proved to be a brilliant move in restoring confidence to the banking system, and particularly to the huge and very troubled mega-firms like Citibank (C) and KeyCorp (KEY). While the baseline scenario used in the tests was a farce, the more adverse scenario did prove to be a relatively accurate forecast of the path of the economy, and it showed that the big systemically important banks could survive it — provided they were able to raise more private capital, and the stress tests played a role in allowing them to do so.

I would like to see the stress tests simply become a regular annual part of the bank examination problem, rather than a one-time extraordinary thing. It sounds like they are moving partially in that direction with his talk of horizontal reviews.

“To complement on-site supervisory reviews, we are also creating an enhanced quantitative surveillance program that will make use of the skills not only of supervisors, but also of economists, specialists in financial markets, and other experts within the Federal Reserve. We are requiring large firms to provide supervisors with more detailed and timely information on risk positions, operating performance, and other key indicators, and we are strengthening consolidated supervision to better capture the firmwide risks faced by complex organizations. Good idea, but hardly a hard one to just now come up with. Why didn’t it get implemented sooner…like, say, 1913 when the Fed was founded?

“In sum, heeding the lessons of the crisis, we are committed to taking a more proactive and comprehensive approach to oversight to ensure that emerging problems are identified early and met with prompt and effective supervisory responses.”