Credit Card Charge-Offs Show Mixed Signs (COF, BAC, DFS, AXP, JPM)

In a sign that consumers were stressed during the holiday shopping season, Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) announced that they saw an increase in credit Card charge-offs for December. Along with Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), the three companies reported that delinquency rates fell for the last month of 2009.

American Express (NYSE: AXP) bucked the trend and saw both charge-offs and delinquencies fall. Net charge offs on a managed basis fell to 7.1 percent in December from 7.6 percent in November.

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) saw delinquencies rise to 4.94% in December versus 4.90% in November, but charge-offs fell to 7.11% in December versus 8.81% in November.

Bank of America, the nation's largest bank, saw the highest delinquency and default rates of the three companies that reported results on Friday. Charge off rates at the nation's largest bank increases to 13.53 percent from a flat 13 percent in November. The rates had declined at the bank for three consecutive months.

Delinquency rates at Bank of America fell to 7.44 percent from 7.69 in November. This number is an indicator of future losses.

Charge off rates rose at Capital One from 9.6 in November to 10.14 percent last month for its U.S. credit cards. Delinquency rates at the bank fell to 5.78 percent from 5.87 percent the month prior.

Discover Financial saw improvement with an 8.68 percent charge off rate, down from the 8.98 percent in November, while delinquency rates dropped as well from 5.65 percent to 5.49 percent.

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