While Dow soars above 10 000, Bank of America suffers $1 billion loss. Make sense to you?

SHOOT: The markets are very schizophrenic. Why you ask? Because there is only a limited acceptance of reality. That's what schizophrenia is, and finance is rife with it. Bonuses and bailouts - need I say more?

New York Times: ...stronger competitors like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have already paid back their bailouts, freeing themselves of the scrutiny and stigma that came with taking the bailout.

A day before reporting its earnings, the bank tried to quell some of the furor over its management and bonus structure by announcing that Mr. Lewis promised to return the pay he received this year to avoid a confrontation with Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Obama administration’s overseer of executive compensation. While Merrill’s brokerage business may be adding meat to Bank of America’s bottom line, investigations over the $50 billion deal that folded the thundering herd into Bank of America still pose legal tangles and publicity headaches for the bank.

Regulators, members of Congress and shareholder lawsuits are examining the merger and questions over bonuses paid out to Merrill executives on the eve of the deal.

clipped from www.nytimes.com After reporting big profits over the last six months, Bank of America lost $1 billion in the third quarter as growing numbers of consumer loans soured and the bank paid millions of dollars to wean itself off government life support. Bank of America posted a loss of 26 cents a share for the three months from July through September, compared with a profit of $3.2 billion in the second quarter. Wall Street analysts had been expecting a loss of 12 cents a share. The bank earned $1.18 billion or 15 cents a share in the quarter a year ago. “Obviously, credit costs remain high, and that is our major financial challenge going forward,” said the bank’s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis. “However, we are heartened by early positive signs, such as the leveling of delinquencies among our credit card numbers.” Bank of America has accepted some $45 billion in taxpayer bailouts since the financial crisis erupted last year, and has issued in debts backed up by the government.