New York - US stocks climbed Wednesday as details began to leak out from a long-anticipated government review of the country's top US banks. The US Federal Reserve is due to release the results Thursday afternoon of the "stress tests" designed to gauge the health of the US banking system.
Bank of America Corp faces a 34-billion-dollar capital shortfall, Wells Fargo & Co needs another 15 billion dollars, and Citigroup Inc will need 5 billion dollars, Bloomberg financial news agency reported, citing people familiar with the findings.
Altogether, 10 of the 19 largest banks are expected to face demands to increase their capital levels in order to survive the worst of the recession. Major banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc have passed the government's stress tests.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 101.63 points, or 1.21 per cent, to 8,512.28. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 15.73 points, or 1.74 per cent, to 919.53. The technology- heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 4.98 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 1,759.1.
The US currency gained against the euro to 75.15 euro cents from 74.98 euro cents on Tuesday. The dollar fell against the Japanese currency to 98.44 yen from 98.92 yen.
