There's a lot of confusion over JPMorgan Chase's move to bump up its earnings release date to Jan. 15 from Jan. 20. The knee-jerk interpretation is that companies do this when they have bad news and they want to minimize the chances of a leak.

But there's some talk that the bank has good news it aiming to get out. Some also speculate it doesn't want to release on Inauguration day. Richard Bove suggests to Barron's that the bank may just want the news out, to address the many downward revisions to earnings estimates. This will be the first quarter in which JPMorgan will account for the operations of Washington Mutual. 

For more:
- here's the Barron's item

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