Bank of America Corp (BAC) Climbs Higher After Annual Report

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The biggest winner in the Dow Jones Industrial Index this morning, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is making a strong rebound as we move toward the weekend. The much-maligned bank started off low, but it has steadily risen since early morning trading, moving as high as 2.58% and now sitting around 1.58%.

Last week saw the stock tumble at the thought of the Fed closing out its stimulus program early, causing rates to rise and bank spreads to shrink. And while there is solid evidence that Bank of America would survive such rate pressure, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke assuaged any fears with his testimony before Congress earlier in the week.

Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)With the release of its annual report yesterday, B of A disclosed some good and not-so-good news for investors to chew on, and so far it seems the good is outweighing the bad.

Cuts, cuts, everywhere
Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), according to its annual report, cut 5% of its workforce in 2012. This brings its total cuts since 2011 to a solid 22,000. Though job cuts are not a favorite of Main Street’s, they are a useful tool for businesses to cut excess weight. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is fully aware of this fact and announced this week that it will be cutting up to 17,000 jobs over the next two years. My fellow Fool Alex Dumortier noted that these cuts may signal that the time for bloated bank work forces, once needed to manage high mortgage default situations, have come to an end. With its default rates plummeting and its underwater home equity loans decreasing faster than any other bank’s, B of A may find the room necessary to make more cuts in the future, saving itself some serious cash.


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