Unemployment, First Priority Bank Fails...

Unemployment rate jumps to 5.7%, 4-year high (Aug 1 - MarketWatch)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Nonfarm payrolls fell for the seventh straight month in July while the unemployment jumped to 5.7%, a four-year high, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls fell by 51,000 in July, led by losses in manufacturing, construction, retail and temporary help.

This was spun as good news by Wall Street in the early going, because the estimate was for 70,000 job losses and only 51,000 were reported. Of course, the data did not even stand up to the most modest of scrutiny. According to the BLS, Leisure & Hospitality saw big gains in hiring for the month, a factoid that does not jibe with any of the economic data coming from restaurants and hotels.

First Priority becomes eighth bank failure this year (Aug 1 - MarketWatch)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - First Priority Bank was shut down by regulators on Friday, making the small Florida lender the eighth bank failure in the U.S. so far this year.

SunTrust Banks agreed to take on the deposits of First Priority, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a statement late Friday. The six branches of First Priority will reopen on Monday as branches of SunTrust, it added.

First Priority is not a large bank, and it looks like WaMu will live to fight another day, or at least another week. SunTrust is on my watch list, though, due to their high exposure to commercial loans in the southeast...

There is a means of ranking banks based on the number of faulty loans they have expressed as a percent of their total capital base. It's called the Texas Ratio, and you can see the exact formula at the bottom of this next image (note: NPA = Non Performing Assets). I've helpfully circled today's banking victim there, occupying the #7-from-the-top position.

And, of course, you may recognize #5 on the list as last week's victim. If your bank is on this list, run, don't walk, to remove your deposits to a safer location.