Market Close News – Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Toyota (NYSE:TM), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)

The big news around Wall Street is press conference held by Senator Dodd today regarding his financial regulatory bill.  The senator is the Senate Banking Chairment, and revealed that the proposed bill would allow the Fed access to any bank with more than fifty billion dollars in assets.  The Feds power could also extend to financial companies that have large assets, and hedge funds with over $100 million in assets would be required to register and disclose financial data with the Fed.  – Wall St. Journal

Banks rebounded on the market today after the press conference, recovering for the day after a mostly down morning.  The bill didn’t seem to offer any big surprises, so big loaning institutions like Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) recovered late in the day.  Overall, the Dow and S&P500 ended up slightly, while the NASDAQ was down despite a late day rally.

The driver of the runaway Prius that made national headlines last week after losing control of the acceleration is under investigate.  According to Toyota (NYSE:TM), there are “strong indications” that the incident may not have happened as was initially reported.  Apparently, the wear on the breaking system is inconsistent with what the driver reported to be happening.  Shares in the Japanese automaker were up today.

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) shares were up today thanks to Citibank upgrading the stock.  The retail store is now the third largest American company, and boosted the Dow for the day.  Wal-Mart ended up at $55.42 for the day, a 2.8% increase.

Homebuilder sentiment was down in March, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders.  The housing market dropped on three fronts: buyer traffic was down to its lowest level since March ’09, sales were down, and expected sales were also down to their lowest point since April ’09. – MSN Money