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By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. financial stocks recovered Thursday following four straight losing sessions as a number of firms fought off some negative headlines, and as big banks like Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ranked among top-gaining blue chips.
Shares of American International Group Inc. /quotes/zigman/557836/quotes/nls/aig AIG +2.86% finished the day up 2.9%, helping support the rebound in financial stocks, after two investment banks initiated research coverage: Deutsche Bank started AIG with a buy rating, while Barclays rated the insurer as equal weight.
On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs had initiated coverage of AIG with a neutral rating.
Golman Sachs and several other firms are being examined to see if they violated bribery laws when dealing with Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund.
More broadly, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF /quotes/zigman/246222/quotes/nls/xlf XLF +1.15% , which tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX +0.74% , added 1.2%.
And among the financial stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/delayed DJIA +0.63% , American Express Co. /quotes/zigman/217470/quotes/nls/axp AXP +0.48% added 0.5%, J.P. Morgan Chase /quotes/zigman/272085/quotes/nls/jpm JPM +1.46% rose 1.5% and Bank of America /quotes/zigman/190927/quotes/nls/bac BAC +1.04% chalked up gains of more than 1%, while Travelers Cos. /quotes/zigman/455344/quotes/nls/trv TRV +0.64% turned fractionally higher after early weakness to close up 0.6%.
Morgan Stanley /quotes/zigman/182639/quotes/nls/ms MS +2.64% shares added 2.6%. On Thursday, the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said it is seeking $25 million from the firm regarding risky investment decisions made for New York’s Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers’s pension plan and its participants.
“In 2007 and 2008, Morgan Stanley invested the assets of Saint Vincent’s pension plan in mortgage-backed securities. The PBGC, which is now responsible for paying benefits to Saint Vincent’s 9,500 workers and retirees, believes that Morgan Stanley knew those financial instruments were too risky, and that investing in them violated the plan’s guidelines,” the group said.
Goldman Sachs Group /quotes/zigman/188479/quotes/nls/gs GS +1.47% , Morgan Stanley’s rival, was also in the news on Thursday.
The activities of Goldman and some other financial firms with Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund are the subject of an inquiry by U.S. regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at the firms’ relationships with the Libyan Investment Authority, the Journal reported.
Among the items under scrutiny is a $50 million fee that Goldman agreed to pay the Libyan fund as part of a plan to help the fund recoup losses, the people told the Journal.
The payment was never made, however, because talks between the New York investment firm and the fund stalled before unrest in Libya broke out in February, the Journal reported.
Shares of Goldman Sachs added 1.5% by the closing bell.
/quotes/zigman/557836/quotes/nls/aig
/quotes/zigman/246222/quotes/nls/xlf /quotes/zigman/3870025 /quotes/zigman/627449/delayed /quotes/zigman/217470/quotes/nls/axp /quotes/zigman/272085/quotes/nls/jpm /quotes/zigman/190927/quotes/nls/bac /quotes/zigman/455344/quotes/nls/trv /quotes/zigman/182639/quotes/nls/ms /quotes/zigman/188479/quotes/nls/gs Greg Morcroft is MarketWatch's financial editor in New York. View the original article here
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