One analyst is convinced that Bank of America's stock price
performance is overdone, and benefits from sleight of hand. In a
series of reports published since August last year, David Hendler,
financial-services analyst at independent research firm
CreditSights, has drawn attention to Bank of America's earnings
from derivatives transactions. "We think the key driver of
performance has been the company's over-reliance on interest-rate
bets that previously went awry and of late have come in the money."
Such activity is, he says, a volatile source of earnings. It would
also seem to belie Bank of America's executives' table-pounding
about the...
