Jpmorgan Chase

In a one-two punch to its reputation, JPMorgan Chase & Co. was accused by regulators in separate cases of misleading big investors about the riskiness of mortgage-related securities it was selling just as the home-loan market was melting down. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the giant bank's securities unit over its sale in 2007 of a complex investment product whose value was indirectly tied to a collection of residential mortgages. JPMorgan did not tell the product's institutional buyers that it had been partly designed by a hedge fund that would profit if the security lost value, the SEC said in a complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

The latest earnings report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. provides a rough snapshot of the U.S. economy: Although Wall Street has roared its way back to financial might, much of mainstream America is still recovering from the Great Recession. JPMorgan Chase said Friday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose fourfold over the same period last year, enabling it to provide average pay of $121,124 for its 222,000 employees -- and $378,599 for members of its elite investment banking division.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. continued to show strong profit in the first quarter of the year thanks to its investment bank and an improving situation for ordinary borrowers. The New York-based banking giant announced on Wednesday morning that it had profit of $3.33 billion in the first quarter of 2010, up slightly from its profit last quarter, and up significantly from its profit a year earlier during the financial crisis. The bank's total revenue of $28.2 billion beat the expectations of analysts.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. eked out a fourth-quarter profit, but its results were anything but calming to investors worried about the mountain of upcoming losses in the troubled banking sector. Defaults surged in a wide variety of loans, ranging from home loans to credit cards to commercial real estate loans. JPMorgan's investment bank was forced to mark down its portfolio by $2.9 billion. And had it not been for JPMorgan's acquisition of Washington Mutual Inc. late last year, the bank would have reported a net loss for the fourth quarter.

U.S. bank stocks are flying high, and this week's earnings could give investors more reason to be optimistic about the sector. Strong results from JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Friday bolstered expectations for top U.S. banks, many of which are scheduled to report in the coming week, including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Financials have been among market leaders in the recent rally, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting its...

Stocks posted moderate gains Thursday as economic data came in mixed and hopeful investors awaited the fourth-quarter results of two major companies. The Dow Jones industrials gained almost 30 points. Shares of Intel jumped 2.5% in anticipation of the chip giant's earnings, which came out after the closing bell and easily exceeded expectations. And JPMorgan Chase climbed 1%, boosting the overall financial sector, in anticipation of its quarterly report slated for early today.

Stocks skidded Tuesday despite another drop in oil prices as downbeat news from financial companies aggravated the market's anxiety about the effect of the credit crisis on the economy. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 140 points. The latest reminder of continuing troubles for banks and brokerages came late Monday when JPMorgan Chase said that less than halfway through the third quarter it had lost $1.5 billion on home loans and mortgage-backed securities in the period, compared with $1.1 billion for all of the second quarter.

In the months before Lehman Bros. collapsed in late 2008, setting off the global financial crisis, the investment bank used an accounting trick to make it appear to have greater liquidity than it did, a court-appointed examiner alleges in a report unsealed Thursday. A number of top Lehman executives, including former Chief Executive Richard Fuld, knew of the alleged manipulation and could be held liable for it, according to the report by Anton Volukas, who was appointed by the federal judge overseeing Lehman's bankruptcy to investigate the causes of the firm's demise.

WASHINGTON - Ina Drew, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive who oversaw the "London Whale" trades, admitted her unit made mistakes that led to at least $6.2 billion in losses but shifted blame to underlings for the scandal that damaged the bank's reputation. It also ended her 30-year career. "Clearly, mistakes were made," Drew told senators Friday in her first public comments on the episode. "The fact that these mistakes have happened on my watch has been the most disappointing and painful part of my professional career.

The Federal Reserve is letting some of the nation's 19 largest banks increase or restart dividend payments, freeing them from restrictions in place since early 2009. The Fed's decision came after it completed a second round of extensive "stress tests" on the banks to determine whether they could release some of their capital reserves and still withstand future economic shocks. Some of the banks, such as Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, quickly announced increases in dividends following the Fed's statement Friday.