- The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) gains 1.3% the morning after the Federal Reserve gave the go-ahead for most banks' capital return plans.
- Wells Fargo (WFC +4.7%) led the climb as it plans to boost its quarterly dividend by 10% to 43 cents a share from 39 cents. And it's more than doubling its stock buyback program to $24.5B from $11.5B in the '17 plan.
- Investors had been concerned about how much WFC would be allowed to return to shareholders after it had said in May that it would be subject to a Fed-imposed asset cap longer than it expected.
- Citigroup (C +2%) also gained on plans to increase its quarterly dividend by 41% to 45 cents a share from 32 cents, and to buy back up to $17.6B of common stock over the next four quarters.
- Morgan Stanley (MS +0.3%) and Goldman Sachs (GS +0.2%), though, were limited to keeping their capital distributions at "levels they paid in recent years," the Fed said.
- "Each firm's capital ratios, under the capital plans they originally submitted and with the one-time capital reduction from the tax law changes, fell below required levels when subjected to the hypothetical scenario," the Fed said.
- State Street (STT +0.5%) also received a conditional non-objection for its capital plan because the test revealed counterparty exposures that produced large losses under the hypothetical scenario, which assumes the firm's largest counterparty defaults.
- Among financials gaining today after the stress test results: Bank of America (BAC +1.2%), JPMorgan (JPM +1.2%), U.S. Bancorp (USB +1.7%), Fifth Third (FITB +1.8%), KeyCorp (KEY +1.7%), M&T Bank (MTB +2.2%), SunTrust Banks (STI +2.3%), American Express (AXP +2%), Discover Financial (DFS +1.7%), Ally Financial (ALLY +3.9%), Santander (MC:SAN) Consumer USA (SC +1.7%)
- ETFs: FAS, FAZ, KRE, VFH, KBE, UYG, FNCL, IYF, BTO, IAT, KIE, IYG, KBWB, IAK, IAI, RYF, KBWP,
- Now read: Capital Securities: Redeemed Issues
Original article