Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender by assets, gained 31 percent in New York trading after Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis and five directors bought more than 500,000 shares for at least $3 million ...Purchases by insiders typically are seen as a vote of confidence, and the filing helped Bank of America stock regain some of the ground lost this week. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., also bought 500,000 shares of his bank valued at $11.5 million, according to a separate filing. Lewis bought his stake as the bank prepared to dismiss about 1,000 people, part of a reduction that may ultimately affect 35,000 jobs.
Thurgy: That is a VERY fast filing of the share purchases. Unusually so. This is a vote of confidence like driving a Chevy Volt to a Congressional Hearing?. I'm guessing they will be in front of the microphone very soon and didn't want any Leer jets coming back to haunt them. So they throw back a few million (chump change) from the bonuses (or just TARP money) buying up shares. This is so they have some skin in the game when they go to Washington really soon answering where the money has went and right before they ask for the next few hundred billion.
