Friday's Headlines: BofA Close to deal to sell stake in China Construction Bank

Bank of America could strike a deal as early as Monday to sell about half of its 10 percent stake in China Construction Bank, CNBC's Kate Kelly reports, citing an anonymous source.

Monday brings the end of a six-year lock-up period, permitting the bank to sell the shares. The stake has been valued at about $17 billion. The bank has been holding talks with sovereign wealth funds that might buy its shares.

A sale of the stake could raise additional capital the bank needs. On Thursday, the Bank of America said it would receive $5 billion from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in exchange for preferred stock and warrants. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.

Other News

Fed Chairman Bernanke leaned on Congress today to do more to promote hiring and growth, but proposed no new steps by the Fed to boost the economy. [AP]

Wall Street scrambles to raise cash on fears that hurricane Irene could wreak havoc on

trading and the commute of thousands of traders who live in the Northeast [Reuters]

State-owned ABN Amro is cutting 2,350 jobs, or 9% of its total, as the government prepares to return the bank to private owners.[Reuters]

Ex-RBS CEO unleashed harsh temper on employees, new book alleges. [DealBook]

Buffet's investment in Bank of America shows banking sector healthier now than before. [MarketWatch]

Ex-Lehman's Fuld, others want to settle multibillion-dollar lawsuit. [Wall Street Journal]

Algorithmic hedge funds outperform funds run by humans due to volatility. [Reuters]

Charles Schwab sues 11 top banks for allegedly manipulating LIBOR rates. [Investment News]

Brazil's BTG Pactual wants to merge with Chile's Ceflin Capital, creating Latin America's biggest investment bank. [Bloomberg]

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney hires Wells Fargo financial adviser team that managed $175 million in assets. [MarketWatch]

Russian banks are hiring, but are less reliant on expensive expats (Bloomberg)

UBS has removed BoA from its 'least preferred' list (Dealbreaker)

Warren Buffett has made $280m from BoA in one day (Telegraph)

Brevan Howard has made $1.5bn in three weeks thanks to the market turmoil (Financial Times)

Paulson is down over 38% (Financial Times)

SocGen has hired a new head of commodities research in the US (Bloomberg)

Chinese banks are booming (Bloomberg)

UBS has hired a wealth manager with $110m in assets (On Wall Street)

In total, ABN Amro has now cut over 8,200 jobs in an attempt to bring its cost-income ratio below 60% by 2014 (Wall Street Journal)

Warren Buffet's bathtub fixation (Dealbook)