The News: Small Acts of Faith

At a time when we're all scrambling for good news, even events deemed "mildly favorable" can be worth noting. So, here's some: JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and Bank of America's Ken Lewis each bought common stock in their companies. MarketWatch says Dimon acquired 500,000 shares of JPM on Friday, while Lewis bought 200,000 shares of BofA on Tuesday. MarketWatch notes that in July, Wachovia's Robert Steel purchased 1 million shares of the bank soon before it collapsed and sold itself to Wells Fargo. But let's not go there.

Bank chiefs Dimon and Lewis buy stock [MarketWatch]

And:

Merrill Lynch took care of its own [FT]

BlackRock sees itself benefiting as investors pursue a flight to quality managers [Dealbook]

No surprise: It's a good time to be a fraud specialist... [InvestmentNews]

... But if a life of crime is for you, try Florida [Dealbreaker]

No surprise II: Richard Parsons will be Citi's chairman [WSJ]

Houston's Sanders Morris Harris Group sold most of its Capital Markets business to Siwanoy Capital [SMH Group]

Financial executives see the recession continuing into 2011 [Deloitte]