Earnings Highlights 1/28/2009

• Wells Fargo reported a quarterly loss of $2.55 billion on a 4% revenue decline from a year ago.  Additionally, Wachovia, which Wells Fargo stole out of the arms of Citi and the FDIC, lost $11.17 billion in the fourth quarter, due to loan losses and investment write-downs.  Wells Fargo's stock is up sharply on the news, following the merciless pummeling it received in last week's bank stock rout, indicating that investors still have no idea how to value bank stocks in the current environment.  Yours truly included.

•   Boeing announced fourth quarter net income declined to a loss of $56 million, reflecting the now-settled machinists strike.  Revenues for the quarter declined 27% to $12.7 billion.  The company also issued muted guidance of $68 to $69 billion in revenue for 2009 and earnings per share of $5.05 to $5.35 a share.  This was below analysts estimates.

• AT&T posted earnings of $2.4 billion, down from $3.14 billion a year earlier.  Revenue rose 2.4% to $31.1 billion, roughly in line with analysts estimates.  AT&T said that it added 2.1 million net new subscribers in the quarter, ahead of analysts estimates.

• Legg Mason posted a loss of $1.5 billion, much higher than analysts' estimates.  The company was forced to take a $1.2 billion writedown in the value of tis hedge-fund business.  Assets declined 17% in the quarter to $689 billion.  Investors withdrew $77 billion, indicating that the balance of the asset decline was attributed to further losses on its portfolios.

• In the "holy smokes" department, ConocoPhillips lost a whopping $31.8 billion on previously disclosed one-time charges.  If you pay no attention to the massive one-time charge (related mostly to a $25.4 billion goodwill write down), earnings were $1.9 billion, beating analysts estimates.  Revenue declined 18% to $44 billion.