Thursday June 28, 6:33 pm Eastern Time
TAKE A LOOK-Stock slump dampens outlook for financial industry
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - The stock market slump is going beyond Wall Street blues and is hurting financial services firms nationwide.
Reuters is publishing a series of stories that preview the industry's second-quarter results and offer expert opinion on the outlook for the remainder of the year.
This special report -- consisting of 10 stories -- is running Thursday, June 28. A list of the pieces follows below To see the articles please type ``Special Report'' and press ``Enter'' or click on one of the numbers in brackets.
* The nation's largest brokerages, including Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MER - news) and Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news) , paint a bleak picture, warning the stock market slump is cutting into profits and preaching the merits of cost and job cutting. (By Brian Kelleher) [nN28360220]
* Further job cuts on Wall Street could take a big bite out of the Big Apple's economy and the city's budget. (By Joan Gralla) [nN28354746]
* Investor distaste for anything risky made for a quiet IPO market in the second quarter, and experts see little improvement until the Nasdaq stock market will rise from its ashes. (By Dane Hamilton) [nN28358099]
* Major U.S. banks' second-quarter profits are expected to fall slightly, hurt by loan losses and lower trading revenues in the sluggish economy, but smaller banks that avoided volatile Wall Street businesses fared better. (By Mary Kelleher) [nN28218397]
* The online brokerage industry just finished up another tough quarter, as April's stock market rally and uptick in customer trading fizzled, and business is likely to get worse before it gets better. (By Greg Cresci) [nN28323315]
*Traditional share dealers face a rocky road as the stock market's middlemen struggle to maintain the bumper profits of recent years in the face of a market slump and the shift to trading stocks in pennies. (By Mark Weinraub) [nN28222380]
* Credit card companies are expected to post a rise in profits in the second quarter, as lending gets cheaper and loan requirements stricter, but things will get tougher toward the end of the year amid rising bankruptcies and loan defaults. (By F. Brinley Bruton) [nN28103626]
* The pace of corporate mergers ticked down further in the second quarter, but investment bankers predict a modest rebound later this year as companies start jettisoning assets to crank up profitability and lagging share prices. (By Tom Johnson) [nN28228494]
* U.S. insurers are expected to report modestly higher second-quarter earnings, but the longer-term outlook is gloomy, as car and home insurers struggle to raise premium rates and life insurers wait for a stock market revival to boost sales (By Bill Rigby) [nN28226187]
* The bond market will likely remain a rare bright spot for the financial industry, as issuance surges, yields fall, and investors take some, but not too much, credit risk, hoping the
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