Stocks to Watch: OMER, EGY, SNSS, JPM, BPZ, AA,

After hours trading is being dominated by the release of banking stress tests conducted by the Fed. Out of the 19 big banks, 4 failed to meet the capital requirements set forth in the test. Among the 4 banks with failing grades was Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C). Citi maintains the reason for its failure was due to its capital-return plan it had already put in place. Regulators said that the company could continue to pay its scheduled dividend.

The goal of the exercise was to judge whether or not financial institutions could withstand a shock similar to the 2008 financial crisis. A passing grade would be to those that would not require capital injections from taxpayers. In the scenario, the 19 banks would incur over 500 billion dollars in losses.

Metlife (NYSE:MET) also failed the stress test under what was deemed a total capital ration. They had 6% while the Fed wanted to see 8%. The company had been asking for approval of a $2 billion stock buy-back plan along with a dividend increase to $1.10 from 74 cents annually.

Those banks that passed the test immediately started to announce dividend increases, including JPMorgan.

The stress test parameters were based on a 13% unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2013, and the Dow plummeting to 5,668. Obviously they also expect these institutions to be rational actors in this scenario. The same ones that created the 2008 crisis. Makes you wonder.

Stocks to Watch

Omeros Corporation (NASDAQ:OMER) closed Tuesday up 33.77% at $10.22. OMER rallied on heavy volume today with 1.7 million shares traded, well above its daily average of 65 thousand shares. OMER shares rose today on news that its eye drug met late-stage trial goals and Wedbush raised its price target from $15 to $17. The company has a market cap of 228.50 million.

Vaalco Energy Inc. (NYSE:EGY) finished today up 16.02% at $8.69. Vaalco shares jumped today after announcing fourth quarter results. Revenue was way above expectations at $67.8 million. EPS however, was $0.15 per share, below estimates of $0.19 per share. Investors seemed to ignore the EPS and went up all day. EGY traded 2.6 million shares today, nearly 4 times its average volume. The company has a market cap of 496.36 million.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNSS) closed Tuesday up 15.86% at $2.63. SNSS traded 1.1 million shares today, 5 times its average volume. SNSS shares have been an uptrend since March 6 when Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage on the company and gave the stock a buy rating. The company has a market cap of 122.86 million.

JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) closed Tuesday up 7.03% at $43.39. JPM went up on heavy volume today with 77.2 million shares traded, more than double its average volume. JPM shares spiked in afternoon trading after passing the Fed’s bank stress test. Immediately following these results, JPM raised its dividend to $0.30 and approved a buy buck of as much as $12 billion in stock this year. The company has a market cap of 163.66 billion.

BPZ Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BPZ) finished the day up 8.12% at $4.13. BPZ traded just over 4 million shares for the day, nearly 3 times its average volume. BPZ shares have been rising steadily over the past few days after announcing positive quarterly results and was upgraded by Rodman & Renshaw to market outperform from market perform. The company has a market cap of 476.95 million.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) closed the day up 4.46% at $10.31. AA has traded 40.2 million shares so far today, well above its daily average of 27.5 million shares. AA shares rose alongside the market wide rally today. AA shares are up about $0.80 over the past four days. The company has a market cap of 10.99 billion.