jpmorgan

Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street: 1. S&P informed the Finance Ministers of a number of EU nations about incoming credit rating downgrades.

While word of the reports was first heard early in Friday's afternoon session, the ratings were not released at 3pm ET as previously expected.

France's rating was lowered by one notch, while Italy and Spain's ratings were taken down by two notches. Notably, Germany's rating was affirmed. 2.

Shares of JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) traded about 3 percent lower Friday following fourth-quarter results earlier.

There is not much good economic news out there. The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, and JPMorgan forecasts it will rise to 9.5 percent over the next year.

The Wall Street consensus is that the chances we are in or will enter another recession are 30 percent to 40 percent.

And the darkest spot in the dark economy? Skills-corroding, poverty-inducing, long-term joblessness. The average duration of unemployment has climbed to record highs, and about 44 percent of jobless workers have not had a job in six months.

One of Hollywood's most famous directors, Steve Spielberg, has finally closed a deal to secure $825 million in funding from India's Reliance Big Entertainment, JPMorgan and The Walt Disney Co., his company announced Monday.

JP Morgan Chase’s $2.7 billion profit from stellar trading and investment banking results may put to rest worries that the bank was allowed to pay back the government too early.

The two big financial firms joined a growing list of companies exiting the federal rescue program created last fall as Wall Street firms were collapsing.

Recently, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and others have said they plan to repay the tens of billions of dollars they received last fall as part of the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as soon as possible.

Investors immediately cheered the news. Shares of Goldman and JPMorgan are up 80% and 117%, respectively, since the market bottomed..

At least three of the nation's 19 largest banks have passed government stress tests of their financial strength.