Traders chuckling about the near-perfect PR timing of the B of A announcement:
12:30 PM: The SEC said it was charging B of A with making materially false and misleading statements regarding the Merrill Lynch acquisition, specifically that B of A told the SEC they had agreed not to pay year end bonuses to Merrill executives before January 1 without B of A's permission, but that apparently was untrue, and Merrill payed $3.6 billion in bonuses before year-end.
B of A drops 4.5 percent.
1:07 PM: A settlement is announced! To pay $33 m to settle charges without admitting guilt! Not bad--$33 million to settle payouts of $3.6 billion!
B of A trades back to price before initial announcement is made.
1:17 PM: New management changes announced! Including Sallie Krawcheck, former CFO at Citi, to run the Global Wealth and Investment Management division.
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