Wells Fargo reports 11% profit, JPMorgan earns $5.3B despite legal woes

Wells Fargo & Co, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, reported a better-than-expected 11 percent rise in fourth-quarter profits as bad-loan provisions fell steeply, helping to make up for a big drop in mortgage lending, Reuters reported. Net income applicable to common shareholders rose to $5.37 billion, or $1 per share, from $4.86 billion, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 98 cents per share. Revenue at JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell, according to CNNMoney. The bank earned $5.3 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the final three months of 2013. Revenue fell 1 percent to $24.1 billion. The results come less than two weeks after JPMorgan agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle lawsuits stemming from its relationship with disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

75 economists back minimum wage hike

CNNMoney: A Democratic proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour got the backing Tuesday of 75 leading economists. The group includes seven Nobel laureates, among them Joseph Stiglitz and Peter Diamond, and several former Obama and Clinton administration economists.

Federal Reserve aims to limit banks’ commodities activities

Bloomberg: The Federal Reserve is poised to take a preliminary step toward limiting banks’ activities with commodities amid Congressional scrutiny, according to three people briefed on the discussions. The Federal Reserve is planning to release a notice seeking information on ways to curb banks’ ownership and trading of some commodities as it tries to cut risk for deposit-taking banks, said the people, who requested anonymity. Regulators and lawmakers have said raw-materials assets could lead to catastrophic losses, collapses and public bailouts.