April pending home sales of existing homes - which measures contract signings--stronger than expect - April, up 6.7 percent, much better than expectations of a gain of 0.5 percent.    Read More

As Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase are amongst the first banks expected to pay back the TARP, the S&P Financials have been leading the charge since this rally began.  But which banks have been the best performers of late?   Read More

Even though Warren Buffett always says he likes stocks more when they're cheaper, he didn't do a lot of buying as Wall Street's major indexes fell to their bear-market lows (so far) in early March.  Berkshire Hathaway's first quarter stock portfolio snapshot shows no blockbuster buys. A few stakes did, however, get bigger during the first three months on the year.   Read More

As the markets look forward this week to the results of the stress tests, many believe the worst is past us and the rally will continue.  Here is a look back at where many of the financials stand today relative to where they were just before Lehman Brothers went under.   Read More

In a conversation published today focusing on why he likes Wells Fargo, Warren Buffett told Fortune's Adam Lashinsky: "We own stock in four banks: USB, Wells, M&T, and SunTrust."  That raised a question. What about the five million Bank of America shares owned by Berkshire Hathaway as of the end of last year?  We now have the answer to the 'mystery' of the 'missing' B of A shares, straight from Buffett himself.   Read More

Warren Buffett says you should judge a banker by how they bank, not by their speeches or PR: "It's what they do and what they don't do. And what Wells (Fargo) didn't do is what defines their greatness."  Buffett tells Fortune's Adam Lashinsky that Wells didn't do "dumb things" just because all the other banks were doing them.   Read More

Warren Buffett's bullish comments on banks, especially Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, during this morning' Squawk Box on CNBC helped boost the financial stocks in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.   Read More

Instead of asking what Warren Buffett has been buying, we should have been wondering what he's been selling.  Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio snapshot for the end of the fourth quarter reveals its holdings in Johnson and Johnson have been slashed by more than half.   Read More

CNBC has obtained a letter signed by six house Representatives from New York State sent to Timothy Geithner, asking the Treasury Secretary to disregard the call for Citigroup to break its 20-year, $400 million investment for the naming rights to the New York Mets stadium.    Read More

For the week: Dow down 3.7 percent, S&P 500 down 4.5 percent, NASDAQ down 2.7 percent. The good news was that, on an options expiration day, most major sectors were to the upside.    Read More