JPM

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said Thursday that its levels of past-due home equity loans are beginning to level off. Delinquent home equity loans "have started to stabilize," Mike Cavanagh, the New York company's chief financial officer, said during a conference call on Thursday to discuss JPMorgan's second quarter earnings. An array of analysts are debating whether signs of abating delinquent loans represent a legitimate economic rebound in the U.S., or merely a seasonal reprieve from higher delinquencies, since unemployment levels have continued to rise.

"We expect unemployment to get worse," Jamie Dimon, the company's chief executive, said during the conference call. Shares in JPMorgan were recently down 0.8% to $35.97 in pre-market tradin. Cavanagh said JPMorgan's portfolio of troubled loans it purchased crumbling Washington Mutual last year are performing "consistent with original assumptions." He said the company's net interest margin will be "likely flat" in the third quarter compared to the second quarter as JPMorgan declines to renew high-interest WaMu certificates-of-deposit accounts, as well as liquidates high-rate home equity loans.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s (JPM) chief financial officer said the U.S. government is using a "convoluted appraisal process" to value bank stock warrants that regulators demanded from banks under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. J.P. Morgan recently submitted a bid to repurchase the warrants, but regulators rebuffed the bid as too low. After rejecting the offer, the U.S. said it would sell the warrants through an auction. Mike Cavanagh, J.P. Morgan's CFO, made the comments during a conference call Thursday to discuss the firm's second-quarter earnings.