Posted on 01/21/2009 11:21:38 AM PST by mojito
U.S. Bancorp, one of the 10 largest U.S. banks, said quarterly profit fell 65 percent to its lowest level since 2001, hurt by costs to boost credit reserves and write down investments.
The results show how the recession and credit crisis have not spared even lenders considered relatively conservative. U.S. Bancorp's mix of businesses is less directly exposed to the health of consumer borrowers than that at many rivals....
In morning trading, shares of U.S. Bancorp were down $1.90, or 12.4 percent, to $13.44 despite a partially recovery in the broader banking sector following steep losses on Tuesday.
Fourth-quarter profit for U.S. Bancorp fell to $330 million, or 15 cents per share, from $942 million, or 53 cents, a year earlier. Net revenue rose 1 percent to $3.62 billion.
Analysts on average expected profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $3.6 billion, Reuters Estimates said.
Profit was the lowest since the third quarter of 2001, according to Reuters data.
U.S. Bancorp more than quintupled the amount set aside for credit losses, to $1.27 billion, reflecting falling home values and increased stress in commercial and construction loans. Net charge-offs nearly tripled to $632 million....
U.S. Bancorp also suffered $253 million of securities losses, mainly for writedowns tied to so-called structured investment vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
2 months ago this was considered one of the banks that would emerge a success from all of this...
What caused the problem in 2001?
I thought we would hit the bottom in Q2 of this year...
Now I’m not so sure...
We were in the Clinton recession - dot.bomb bubble burst. But, don’t look for the media to point that out - or the relatively stable economy we had during the vast majority of the Bush admin.
It did report a profit rather than a loss.
Well horray! The stock markets are showing some gains today.
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