Shares of U.S. financial stocks early Thursday as a continued rally in American International Group and new buy ratings on Dow components American Express and J.P. Morgan Chase had buyers throwing money at the sector.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR /quotes/comstock/13*!xlf /quotes/nls/xlf ( XLF 14.07 , -0.01 , -0.07% ) , which tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500, added about 1%.
Shares of American International Group /quotes/comstock/13*!aig /quotes/nls/aig ( AIG 24.74 , +2.74 , +12.46% ) continued to rally on Thursday, rising almost 30%. That move follows a more than 60% jump during the previous session for the insurer which is almost 80% owned by the U.S. taxpayer.
Some analysts on Wednesday attributed the gains to investors scrambling to cover short sales after the firm set a 20-for-one reverse stock split earlier this year.
Other analysts suggested that recent better-than-expected second-quarter results from other insurers bode well for AIG, which will report earnings tomorrow.
Shares of American Express and J.P. Morgan received new buy ratings, and they moved higher.
Analysts at Citigroup upgraded American Express /quotes/comstock/13*!axp /quotes/nls/axp ( AXP 31.60 , +1.24 , +4.08% ) to buy from hold.
"We are upgrading the shares as we are now more comfortable that credit has stabilized at AXP. Implicit in this call is an incrementally more positive view on financial stocks," the analysts said.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of J.P. Morgan Chase /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm /quotes/nls/jpm ( JPM 41.19 , -0.59 , -1.41% ) with a buy rating.
THOUGH the market seems set to get intoo a bear hug/correction/downtrend from here as the premise is that Governments will continue to print money
$13.97 (08/06/09)
