HSBC's Big Announcement Fails To Impress; Big Challenges Ahead

HSBC is down 1% today to 613p after CEO Stuart Gulliver announced major changes including shedding up to 50,000 jobs, shutting down operations in multiple countries, and reducing risk-weighted assets by 25%. While the changes were welcome, analysts mostly expected them and in some cases had expected HSBC to go further. If HSBC doesn’t move to Hong Kong as many hope, or if Gulliver stumbles on execution, shares could sink even further down the road. Analysts leave their ratings, price targets unchanged Of the ten point plan that HSBC unveiled, analysts have homed in on three as being especially important….