JPMORGAN CHASE

Stocks were nearly unchanged on Friday, the last trading day of a turbulent year, but the S&P 500 looked set to end with a slight gain.

The trustee liquidating MF Global's brokerage does not have a conflict of interest stemming from prior work done for one of MF Global's key lenders, a bankruptcy judge said on Tuesday.

A former unit of General Electric Co. (GE) agreed to pay $70.35 million to U.S. regulators to resolve complaints about the company's role in anticompetitive activity in the municipal bond investments market.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris sued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday in an effort to expand her probe into the companies' mortgage foreclosure practices.

Wall Street banks woke up to an unexpected positive surprise Tuesday after one of the financial sector's most prominent medium-sized investment banks posted results that exceeded analyst expectations, showing strength in the much-battered sector in spite of a highly volatile fourth quarter. Earnings for Jefferies Group (NYSE:JEF) were 50 percent higher than analysts had expected.

Fitch Ratings, the third-biggest of the major credit rating agencies, downgraded seven global banks based in Europe and the United States, citing "increased challenges" in the financial markets.

Sen. Maria Cantwell wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday expressing concern that a nationwide settlement regarding major banks' foreclosure practices should not grant immunity in future investigations into their conduct leading up to the mortgage crisis.

Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest bank to fail in U.S. history, said it reached a settlement in a dispute between shareholders and certain creditors that had prevented the bank from emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Stocks tumbled on Monday, as concerns about Europe returned to the forefront after major credit ratings agencies warned that European leaders had not done enough to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Sheila Bair, former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), is said to be the leading candidate to monitor banks during a nationwide foreclosure settlement.

Stocks rose on Friday as European Union leaders agreed on measures to tackle the region's sovereign debt crisis and data showed U.S. consumer confidence rose to a six-month high.

Stocks advanced on Friday as European Union leaders agreed on measures to address the region's sovereign debt crisis, while U.S. consumer confidence rose to its highest level in six months.

Stock in the largest American banks were particularly bullish on the developments, trading up in heavy volume during pre-market action in the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) were up more than 2 percent in very early pre-market trading. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), whose operations are generally considered to be more sensitive to developments out of Europe than its large bank peers in the U.S., was up over 3 percent.

Asian shares, commodities and the euro fell Friday on growing doubts that European leaders could forge a credible plan to solve the euro zone's debt crisis at a summit later in the day.

Susquehanna Financial cut its profit estimates of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) after the company guided weak results for its investment bank unit.

Occupy Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, will protest in foreclosed and vacant properties in around 25 U.S. cities on Tuesday's Day of Action, promoting what organizers call the basic human right of housing.

A strange and winding day for the shares of major U.S. financial companies ended as oddly as it began, as shares of major U.S. banks seemed to brush off bad news on sovereign debt ratings that rattled the wider market and shares of five of the biggest financial institutions traded on the New York Stock Exchange ended the session on a sell imbalance.

Over the past few days, Lehman Brothers has announced several actions one might not expect from what is arguably the most notorious bankrupt company of the last decade. It is looking to name a new board of directors and is engaging in a bidding war for another company.

Break out the bubbly, Michael Kors is going public, with an IPO valued at $3.6 billion.

In a research note, banking industry analyst Matthew Burnell reduced fourth-quarter earnings estimates for JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Burnell reduced the earning estimates for JPMorgan and Citi by about 4 percent, but sounded a much more pessimistic note on Goldman and Morgan Stanley.

Germany's SAP announced a $3.4 billion cash deal to buy U.S. Web-based software company SuccessFactors, joining the scramble among technology firms to offer cloud-computing services to businesses.