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Bank of America posts 1st-qtr profit, beating Street, in sign that banks may be recovering

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bank of America Corp. managed to avoid a loss in the first quarter, surpassing analysts’ expectations and providing further evidence the banking sector might be improving.

But the bank also took a hefty $13.4 billion provision for loan losses and its shares fell 55 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $10.05 in premarket trading.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company earned $2.81 billion after paying preferred dividends, or 44 cents per share, compared with a profit of $1.02 billion, 23 cents per share, in the year ago period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 4 cents per share.

The higher-than-expected earnings could take some pressure off Chief Executive Ken Lewis who has faced calls from some shareholders to either give up his job as chairman or be ousted. Read more

Save $50 a Day: How Three Super Savers Do It

Take a look at how real people put cost-cutting ideas into action and watch their savings add up. Collectively, Michele Harrison, Mike and Vjera Silbert and Stephanie Dunshee offer a combined total annual savings of $17,860.

Meet the Harrisons

They’ve put saving first and mended spendthrift ways. Their ideas add up to: Annual Savings of $5,200.

When her daughter McKenzie was born three years ago, Michele Harrison decided to reform her spendthrift ways and pay down about $6,000 in credit-card and auto-loan debt. “Saving was a new concept,” says Harrison, 42, a single parent. “It was always: Spend everything once you have it. Every payday was a windfall.” Read more

Is the Rush to Exit TARP a Trap?

Commentary: Banks weigh payback, the fate of the system could be at stake

Thomas Geisel decided to bail out of TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, rather than accept a bailout. To the program’s critics, Geisel is making the right move, but I’m not so sure.

Geisel, the chief executive of Sun Bancorp Inc. (SNBC) , said the government’s changing rules for TARP made keeping the money a burden rather than a boon. TARP had gone from a capital infusion that Sun could have used to lend or buy troubled rivals, to an albatross that required 5% interest a year.

“We were concerned about knowing what we didn’t know,” when it came to Congress changing the rules, he said. Read more

World markets steady after US jobs data

LONDON (AP) — U.S. and European stock markets were steady Friday after further depressing news on the U.S. jobs front further reined in any market euphoria from the previous day’s meeting of the Group of 20 world leaders.

Though the Labor Department reported that the U.S. shed 663,000 jobs in March — more or less what the market was anticipated, it revised up its figure for the number of jobs lost in January by nearly 100,000 more than previously anticipated. In addition it said the unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high of 8.5 percent in March from 8.1 percent in February. As a result, the U.S. has lost over 5 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007.

“These massive job losses point to continued declines in output and we expect another big fall in gross domestic product to be reported for the first quarter,” said Arek Ohanissian, an economist at the Centre for Economic Business and Research in London. Read more

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