The SJC 25 Stock Report, March 18, 2012

Whoa. (See Bank of America Corp.'s performance below). Whoa.

The federal reserve put some 19 banks through a "stress test" this week to see how sound they area. Forbes ran a story that the stress test isn't as predictive as some might believe.

However, most investors didn't read it, because BofA, thought to be one of the weaker banks, passed the test and then made a mighty 21 percent jump in its stock price.

All this when the Dow Jones Industrials was up 2.39 percent on the week, the S&P 2.43.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was so confident in its results, it actually came out ahead of the Federal Reserve’s press release with its own announcement of an increase in its dividend and a share buyback plan, Forbes reported. It was up 8.63 percent on the week.

Citigroup Inc. didn't fare as well with the Fed. Its submitted plan showing how it would weather another financial storm was rejected. Bank officials plan to revise their plans and resubmit them later this year, according to Bloomberg.

So Citigroup was only up 7.28 percent on the week. 

Meanwhile, Rite Aid Corp. continues its tear, hitting the $2 mark (percentages, people, look at the percentages, even though rumors of a merger with Walgreens may not pan out, according to The Street.

Some Business Briefs for You:

If you've bought some costume jewelry at Big Lots Inc., you may want to rethink letting your children (or you) wear it. According to CBS, A nonprofit group has found more than 50 percent of the bracelets, necklaces and trinkets have carcinogens and unsafe chemicals, such as lead and nickel. 

Speaking of things on molecular level, Quest Diagonistics Inc. has developed a blood test for indicating kidney transplant rejection, according to the company. The test is designed to detect failure weeks before conventional testing methods.

Starbucks Corp. was named one of the country's top 145 most ethical companies, by the Ethisphere Institute, according to Minyanville.com.

YUM! Brands Inc. is expecting big things out of India, bigger than even China, according to Investers.com. The operator and franchiser of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell has 374 restaurants in India and expects to have 2,000 restaurants there by 2020.

 Ticker 

  % Change

 on the Week 

  +21.74

– Financial data provided by Google Finance