Big BAC Buy Leads Fine Thursday Start for Financials

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 100 points, about a 1%
drop, to around 11,212. Hopes are fading that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke will use his talk tomorrow at Jackson Hole, Wyo., to introduce more
stimulus measures for the U.S. economy. This coupled with a slew of bad
economic news concerning jobs, housing and the credit markets is halting the
Dows streak for the weak. Bolstering the Dow this morning was the disclosure
that Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A ) is investing $5 billion
in Bank of America. While financials have been the worst-performing sector on
the Dow this year, the three leaders were all from this segment. Leading the Dow
was its worst-performing stock for the year, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ),
rising about 20% to around $8.35, a gain of around $1.35 per share. With the
imprimatur of Warren Buffett, others were following his lead. Bank of America is
down about 40% for the quarter. JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM ) was heading up along with
Bank of America, higher by more than 4% to over $37.30 a share, a gain of around
$1.50. JP Morgan is up slightly for the year, less than 1%. Rising by about 70
cents per share, or about 1.4%, to around $48.75 was American Express (NYSE: AXP
). For the week, American Express is up about 5%. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) was down
about 2% to around $68.30, falling more than $1.35. Consumer stocks were taking
a beating after a weak U.S. jobs report. Coca-Cola is up for the week, month,
quarter and year. It is trading about 2% from its year high. 3M (NYSE: MMM ) was
lower by about $1.30, shedding about 1.6% to fall under $79 per share. 3M lost
an age bias lawsuit, which could lead to others. While up about 2% for the year,
MMM is down around 12% for the quarter. 3M has a relative strength index rating
of 40, with 30 considered to be the standard for a stock to be viewed as
oversold. Merck (NYSE: MRK ) was down about 50 cents, a drop of around 1.3%, to
around $31.80. Reports are out that Merck is dead money through 2012 as there
are no new major drugs coming out. For 2011, Merck is down more than 2.5%,
falling about 10% during the past month. Jonathan Yates does not own any of the
stocks mentioned in this article.