Judge Balks at BofA Bonus Settlement

Energy sector leads stocks lower; financials up on BofA settlement

(NEWSER) - Energy issues pushed stocks lower today after indexes hung around opening levels and briefly wandered into positive territory. Bank of America's settlement with the SEC over its acquisition of Merrill Lynch last year boosted financials, the Wall Street Journal reports.

• The Dow fell 18.97 points to close at 10,383.38.
• The Nasdaq lost 1.84, settling at 2,242.03.
• The S&P 500 dropped 1.16 to close at 1,108.01.

Big finance could face populist pitchforks

(NEWSER) - Bailed-out Wall Street execs handing themselves hefty bonuses this month should prepare for outrage not only from Dems inside the Beltway but from tea partiers, who hold their first convention in Nashville next month. The rage that has been focused on big government and health care reform could easily swing toward Wall Street, Gerald Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal . More»

Small signs of restraint as bonus season begins with record profits

(NEWSER) - Wall Street this week enters that cash free-for-all known as bonus season with quite the dilemma hanging overhead: How to distribute the billions in record-breaking profits reaped this year without incurring public wrath? Goldman Sachs expects to give out an average of $595,000, the New York Times reports, and the question for some banks is how many digits bonuses will have—six, seven, or even eight? More»

Companies bend to Fed's will—even when they don't have to

(NEWSER) - The rash of government bailouts in the last 16 months was aimed at averting financial meltdown, but its effects on American capitalism will last long after the last TARP funds are (if they are) paid back, the Wall Street Journal predicts. Obama adviser Larry Summers argues that the interventionist moves were nothing more than short-term rescue operations, but with Washington now wielding influence over a broad swath of big companies, many aren't persuaded. More»

Compensation limits have prompted swift TARP repayment

(NEWSER) - A common complaint about the TARP bailouts was that by injecting capital and making the financial environment more friendly, the government wasn't doing enough to push the banks into real reform. Why wouldn't the banks simply live off TARP cash as long as they could? Yet those concerns were unfounded, writes Daniel Gross, because it turned out the government did have an effective motivator: limits on compensation. More»