Bank of America's earnings will be in the news today. The early take is that it seems to be following the template of sorts set by JPMorgan earlier. (See the previous item.) For one thing, earnings were strong. Net income in the second quarter rose to $1.28 a share from $1.19 a year ago. Analysts were expecting about $1.20. The increase was powered by retail (bank and credit card) fees. But there may well be some lingering uncertainty, despite the solid performance. Credit quality is a huge issue right now. Provisions for credit losses were boosted to $1.81 billion, up from $1.01 billion a year ago. Net charge-offs rose to $1.50 billion from $1.02 billion a year ago. Clearly, the subprime mess is having an effect, even as the bank moves aggressively to win market share in mortgages.

For more:
- here's the release