JPM closed Thursday at $45.46/share, or a market cap of $177,762.3 billion. Twenty four hours later it was at $44.59 (a loss of 1.91%) and closed at a market cap of $174,360.3 billion (-$3.4 billion decline). Just a little background, the S&P 500 Banking Index or the BIX was flat to up (+0.22%) on the day. Irving Piccard's lawsuit is asking for $6.4 billion from JPM. Based on initial reaction from the market, they have priced in that JPM will more than likely have to pay. The market believes that JPM either has a 53% probability of paying ($3.4 billion decline in mkt cap / $6.4 lawsuit = 53%) the full amount or that JPM could end up settling for almost half of the $6.4 billion.
Since the Madoff name is like the ebola virus in the financial industry, I feel that JPM will vigorously contend this suit. Settling would be an implicit admission of guilt. In addition, since they were just the banker of Madoff's security company I don't believe the courts would contend that they were "complicit in the fraud"and therefore have responsibility in such a scheme. IF there is a settlement I believe it would be way below either the market or Piccard is hoping to get.
Disclosure: Long JPM
Courtesy of Floyd Norris from the NY Times:
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