JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp (BAC): Shares Rise Despite More Problems for Two Major Banks

Although we don’t believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes — just in case they’re material to our investing thesis.

With just about an hour left in the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up almost 50 points for the day after trading higher for the majority of the session. But when the closing bell rang, the index sat lower by 7.75 points, or 0.05%. Despite the Dow’s poor ending, though, the other two major indexes did both move higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.38% and the Nasdaq 0.68%.

Sentiment overall was good today on Wall Street as investors were given some upbeat news about the economy and consumer spending after a few big retailers reported earnings this morning. But those positive feelings and a few big winners on the big board weren’t enough to hold the blue-chip average up. Let’s take a brief look at some of those winners today.

Shares of Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) rose 0.99% today even after reports that an intern in the company’s London office was found dead last week in his home. While it is still unknown what caused the 21-year-old’s death, many news outlets used this as a reason to call for reform of the overall culture within the financial industry.  This incident may again put Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) back in the crosshairs of federal regulators and the long arm of the law, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) did such a great job of taking the heat from investigators and the press for the past few days.

JPMorgan has been in the limelight lately, with the most recent being the announcement that two former employees involved in the London Whale incident were being indicted, new criminal probes into the company’s involvement with mortgage-backed securities, and then news on Sunday that the bank may have received contracts because of jobs the bank gave to two Chinese officials. These recent problems pushed JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s spokesman Joe Evangelisti recently to say, “We are committed to making sure that our business systems, practices, controls and culture meet the highest standards. This is our top priority.” That comment and the trust many investors put in CEO Jamie Dimon’s ability to get the bank cleaned up may have been the reason shares rose 0.56% today.