BBVA AFFECTED by Provisioning and 4 Morning Hot Stocks Garnering Attention

Cost cutting at Panasonic (NYSE:PC) helped the company report a strong first quarter with a net profit of 12.81 billion yen compared to a loss of 30.35 billion last year. Though revenues were down 6 percent to 1.815 trillion yen, operating profit zoomed over seven times to 38.60 billion yen.

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In a major move that will be appreciated by legislators the IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) proposes to move cleared products trading on its OTC energy market to the futures group effective January. The move will affect energy contracts that trade in trillions of dollars and reduce the use of swaps by customers, but will boost overall transparency in trading.

In a telling sign that China’s slowing economy and the eurozone crisis are finally taking a toll on the Australian mining boom, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) is to cut jobs at its Melbourne regional headquarters and close its Sydney office that had 30 employees.

Spanish banking group BBVA’s (NYSE:BBVA) second quarter was adversely affected by statutory provisioning for soured real estate loans, which currently stands at 1.43 billion euros out of its forecast 4.64 billion euros. Loan defaults rise to 16.1 billion euros from last years 15.5 billion euros. International operations were comparatively better with a net income of 255 million euros. Mexican earnings alone were up 1.2 percent to 439 million euros.

Competition regulators in the EU throw the book at Visa (NYSE:V) charging it with stifling banking competition and saddling merchants with higher hosts, and in the net result loading higher cost on to consumers. In special focus are Visa’s cross-border credit-card fees and domestic charges in eight countries.

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