Reuters ahead on Wells Fargo saga – twice

Reuters beat Bloomberg by a minute and Dow Jones by 4 minutes with the Oct. 9 news that Citigroup ended negotiations with Wells Fargo in the saga to acquire Wachovia Bank. Citi’s shares rose 15 percent to $14.88, Wachovia shares rose about 18 percent to $4.24, and Wells Fargo shares rose 3 percent to $28. Reuters also was one day ahead of the Wall Street Journal with an exclusive analysis on how Wells Fargo is playing with fire by setting aside less money for loan losses. When the economy is tanking, banks should be setting aside more money for credit losses, not less. The Wall Street Journal’s readers had to wait until Oct 16 to learn about it.