Financial stocks rose Thursday after the board that sets U.S. accounting standards said it would give banks more leeway in valuing assets that are a primary reason for the ongoing credit crisis. Banks have been pummeled by losses tied to writing down the value of certain assets, especially bonds backed by troubled mortgages, costing them hundreds of billions of dollars. "It certainly seems to be helping the market," Fred Cannon, chief equity strategist at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., said of...
photo: AP / Jin Lee
