NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced that Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) of Cincinnati and its former CFO Daniel Poston had settled charges of "improper accounting of commercial real estate loans in the midst of the financial crisis."
Fifth Third agreed to pay a $6.5 million fine, while Poston agreed to pay $100,000 and "be suspended from practicing as an accountant on behalf of any publicly traded company or other entity regulated by the SEC."
Poston had been demoted from the CFO position and named Fifth Third's "chief strategy and administrative officer in November, when Fifth Third announced its agreement to settle the charges.
The SEC accused the bank and Poston of failing to classify a pool of nonperforming commercial real estate loans as "held-for-sale" during the third quarter of 2008, even though the bank had already decided to sell the loans. Recategorizing the loans during the third quarter of 2008 would have included a significant write down, which would have "increased Fifth Third's pretax loss for the quarter by 132 percent."
The SEC said Poston during the third quarter of 2008 was "familiar with the company's loan sale efforts, which included entering into agreements with brokers during the third quarter of 2008 to market and sell loans." The regulatory added that "Despite understanding the relevant accounting rules, Poston failed to direct Fifth Third to classify and value the loans as required," and that the former CFO made inaccurate statements to auditors. Poston also made inaccurate statements to Fifth Third's auditors about the company's loan classifications, and certified the company's inaccurate results for the third quarter of 2008.
Neither Fifth Third nor Poston admitted any wrongdoing.
Fifth Third's shares were down slightly during the final hour of trading Wednesday, to $19.93.
FITB data by YCharts
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Hot Industrial Disributor Stocks To Buy Right Now: China Unicom (CHU)
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (Unicom), incorporated on February 8, 2000, is an integrated telecommunications operator in China providing mobile voice and value-added, fixed-line voice and fixed-line broadband, data communications and other telecommunications services to its customers. The Company operates in two business segments consisting of mobile services and fixed-line services. The Company is engaged in global system for mobile communications (GSM) and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) cellular business in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, the provision of fixedline voice, broadband and other Internet-related services, information and communications technology services, business and data communications services, and other related telecommunication value-added businesses. As of 30 June 2011, Unicom Group held 57.81% of the shares in the Company through China United Network Communications Limited (A Share Company), China Unicom (BVI) Limited and China Netcom Group Corporation (BVI) Limited, and Telefonica Internacional S.A.U. held 9.01% of the shares in the Company.
Mobile Business
Unicom�� mobile business consists of GSM and third generation (3G) mobile business. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had a total of 167.43 million mobile subscribers. As of December 31, 2010, its total number of mobile subscribers included 167.43 million. Unicom operates the 3G business based on the WCDMA technology nationwide in China. As of December 31, 2010, the total number of its 3G subscribers included 14.06 million, and had 1.35 million wireless data card subscribers, 2.41 million mobile television (TV) subscribers and over seven million mobile reading subscribers. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the total 3G voice usage was 55.47 billion minutes and the average data usage per subscriber per month was 178M. GSM mobile business primarily consists of GSM voice business and value-added business.
The Company�� mobile ! voice business enables its subscribers to make and receive phone calls with a mobile handset at any point within the coverage area of its mobile telecommunications networks. Its mobile voice business includes local calls, domestic long distance calls, international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, inter-provincial roaming and international roaming. As of December 31, 2010, the Company�� total number of GSM mobile subscribers was 153.37 million. Unicom offers a range of GSM value-added services nationwide, including short message service (SMS), Cool Ringtone (a personalized ring-back tone service), mobile Internet and other wireless information services. During 2010, a total of 78.31 billion SMSs were transmitted by its GSM mobile subscribers. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had a total number of 67.26 million subscribers to its Cool Ringtone service. In addition, as of December 31, 2010, it had a total number of 55.81 million mobile Internet subscribers.
Fixed-Line Business
Unicom is a fixed-line broadband and communications operator in northern China. The Company offers a range of fixed-line services nationwide in China, including fixed-line broadband services and data communications services; fixed-line voice services, include local and long distance fixed-line voice services and value-added services, and other services. The Company is a provider of fixed-line broadband services in its fixed-line northern service region. Unicom is a provider of data communications services in its fixed-line northern service region. It offers managed data products, such as those based on digital data networks (DDN), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and Internet protocol-virtual private network (IP-VPN). The Company also offers leased line products, including domestic and international leased circuits. Its customers for these services include government entities, large financial institutions and other domestic and multinational businesses, Internet service prov! iders and! other telecommunications operators.
As of December 31, 2010, the Company had established business cooperation relationships with more than 160 overseas operators to provide various international data communications products and services, such as international voice and data services. During 2010, it continued to offer full-scale data communications services to international operators and domestic and international corporate customers. The Company�� fixed-line voice services consist of local voice, domestic long distance, international long distance, value-added, interconnection and personal handyphone system (PHS) services. In addition to fixed-line telephone voice services, it offers a range of value-added services on its fixed-line networks. The Company�� fixed-line, value-added services include Personalized Ring and caller identification services. Personalized Ring services enable its fixed-line subscribers to personalize the ring-back tone for incoming calls. As of December 31, 2010, the number of its Personalized Ring subscribers reached 23.79 million.
Interconnection and Roaming Arrangements
The Company earns interconnection fees for terminating or transiting calls that originate from other domestic telecommunications operators��networks and pay interconnection fees to other operators for calls originating from its networks that are terminated on their networks. It earns and pays such fees in respect of mobile calls, local and domestic and international long distance calls and Internet services, except for the interconnection by fixed-line subscribers calling its mobile subscribers in the same region where no interconnection fee will be charged.
The Company provides roaming services, which allow its subscribers to access its mobile services while they are physically outside of their registered service area or in the coverage areas of other mobile networks in other countries and regions with which it has roaming arrangements. As of April 30! , 2011, U! nicom had roaming arrangements for GSM international voice and SMS services with 242 operators in 521 countries and regions; GPRS international inbound data services with 179 operators in 400 countries and regions and for international GPRS outbound data services with 164 operators in 357 countries and regions, and 3G services with 104 WCDMA operators in 245 countries and regions.
Mobile Networks
The Company�� mobile network consists of cell sites, which are physical locations, each equipped with a base station that houses transmitters, receivers and other equipment used to communicate through radio channels with subscribers��mobile handsets within the range of a cell; base station controllers, which connect to, and control, the base stations, and mobile switching centers, which control the base station controllers and the routing of telephone calls. Its mobile network also consists of a transmission network, which links the mobile switching centers, base station controllers, base stations and the public switched telephone network. It has deployed GSM and WCDMA mobile networks. The Company�� GSM mobile network mainly operates at 900 megahertz. It has also deployed GSM technology that operates at 1,800 megahertz in metropolitan areas to supplement the capacity of its existing mobile network. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had approximately 329,000 GSM base stations.
The Company competes with China Mobile and China Telecom.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Garrett Cook]
Telecommunications services shares jumped around 1.19 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), China Unicom (Hong Kong) (NYSE: CHU), and Partner Communications Company (NASDAQ: PTNR).
- [By Jim Woods]
China Telecom (CHA) has seen its shares fall more than 16% over the past year, with much of that coming in 2014. China Unicom (CHU) stock has slumped 9% in the past 52 weeks, thanks to a 12% decline year-to-date.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.83 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included China Telecom Corp. (NYSE: CHA), Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE: TKC), and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (NYSE: CHU). In trading on Monday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.75 percent. - [By MARKETWATCH]
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks inched lower early Friday, with mainland Chinese banks and energy shares among the weak spots. The Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) lost 0.1% to 22,824.44, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index down 0.4%, even as the Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP) rose 0.1%. Concerns about the fiscal health of the top mainland lenders loomed again over the shares, with Bank of China Ltd. (HK:3988) (BACHY) down 0.9%, Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) 1.3% lower, and China Construction Bank Corp. (HK:939) (CICHF) off 0.7%. In the energy sector, Cnooc Ltd. (HK:883) (CEO) gave up 0.9% after posting a 17% gain in third-quarter revenue but not reporting its profit for the period. Its peers also lost ground, as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (HK:386) (SNP) and PetroChina Co. (HK:857) (PTR) fell 1% apiece. On the upside, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. (HK:762) (CHU) added 1.6% after announcing a gain of more than 50% for its quarterly profit compared to a year earlier. Rival China Mobile Ltd. (HK:941
Best Regional Bank Companies To Buy Right Now: Indonesia Transport & Infrastructure Tbk PT (IATA)
PT Indonesia Transport & Infrastructure Tbk, formerly PT Indonesia Air Transport Tbk, is an Indonesia-based air transport service provider. The Company provides air transportation, hiring and/or leasing aircrafts, repairs and maintenance of aircrafts and trading of aviation technical equipment and related spare parts. It also provides medical evacuation services, tourism and scheduled flight services to several routes in central and eastern Indonesia. The Company operates various types of fixed wing aircrafts and helicopters, such as EC 155 B1, AS 365 Dauphin N2 twin turbine helicopter, Beechcraft 1900D, ATR 42-300, ATR 42-500 and Fokker 50. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Shereen El Gazzar]
The forecast, from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), sees the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region with the strongest international passenger growth, with a compound average growth rate of 6.3% and 5.7% respectively.
Best Regional Bank Companies To Buy Right Now: Barratt Developments PLC (BDEV)
Barratt Developments PLC is a holding company. The Company�� principal activities consists of acquiring and developing land, planning, designing and constructing residential property developments and selling the homes it builds. The Company operates in two segments: housebuilding and commercial developments. The Company operates across a spectrum of the market from flats to family homes and urban regeneration schemes. The Company also has a focused commercial developments business. The Company builds a range of homes ranging from those for first-time buyers, to family homes, to high-rise flats and affordable housing. The Company�� housebuilding business trades under the Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes and Ward Homes brands. The Company�� subsidiaries include BDW Trading Limited, BDW North Scotland Limited, David Wilson Homes Limited and Wilson Bowden Developments Limited. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Inyoung Hwang]
U.K. homebuilders declined as increasing bond yields spurred concern rising interest rates may hinder the housing recovery. Barratt Developments Plc (BDEV) sank 7.4 percent, Persimmon Plc fell 3.6 percent and Taylor Wimpey Plc lost 3.7 percent.
Best Regional Bank Companies To Buy Right Now: Anika Therapeutics Inc.(ANIK)
Anika Therapeutics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and commercializes therapeutic products for tissue protection, healing, and repair. Its products are based on hyaluronic acid (HA), a naturally occurring biocompatible polymer found in the body. The company offers orthobiologics products for providing relief from the pain of osteoarthritis, and regenerating damaged tissue, such as cartilage defects; ORTHOVISC for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee and various joints; ORTHOVISC mini for the treatment of osteoarthritis in small joints; and MONOVISC, a single injection product used for the treatment of osteoarthritis in various joints. It also provides wound care products that comprise Hyalograft 3D for the regeneration of skin; and Hyalomatrix for the treatment of burns and ulcers. In addition, the company offers AMVISC, AMVISC Plus, STAARVISC-II, Optivisc, and AnikaVisc which are injectable HA products used as viscoelastic agents in o phthalmic surgical procedures, such as cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation. Further, it provides INCERT, a HA based product for the prevention of post-surgical adhesions; Hyalobarrier and Hyalobarrier Endo, which are post operative adhesion barriers for abdominal indications; and HYVISC, an injectable HA product used for the treatment of joint dysfunction in horses due to non-infectious synovitis associated with equine osteoarthritis. Additionally, the company offers Merogel, a product used for the treatment of ear, nose, and throat disorders; and provides dermal fillers for facial wrinkles and scar remediation under the ELEVESS and HYDRELLE brand names. It markets its products directly, as well as through a network of distributors primarily in the United States and Europe. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By STOCKPICKR]
Anika Therapeutics (ANIK), together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and commercializes therapeutic products for tissue protection, healing, and repair in the U.S., Europe, and internationally. This stock closed up 2.1% to $48.86 in Monday's trading session.
Monday's Volume: 1.25 million
Three-Month Average Volume: 347,160
Volume % Change: 272%From a technical perspective, ANIK jumped higher here right above some near-term support at $46 with above-average volume. This spike higher on Monday briefly pushed shares of ANIK into breakout territory, since the stock flirted with some near-term overhead resistance levels at $49.21 to $49.37. Shares of ANIK tagged an intraday high of $51.40, before it closed below that level at $48.86. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if ANIK manages to take out Monday's high of $51.36 to its 52-week high of $52.49 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ANIK as long as it's trending above Monday's low of $47.57 or above $46 and then once it sustains a move or close above $51.36 to $52.49 with volume that hits near or above 347,160 shares. If that move begins soon, then ANIK will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are $55 to $60.
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