Wall Street Roundup: False bank profits. Protecting Goldman.

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Good numbers, bad vibes. The number of home sales is up, as are orders of durable goods -- apparently good signs for the economy -- but it is not helping stock markets, which appear to be fearing that the Federal Reserve is not going to be as aggressive as thought in aiding the economy.

False bank profits. It looks like many of the profits announced by banks in their recent earnings statements came not from improved revenue, but instead from the release of reserves.

Searching for Buffett’s successor. More information is trickling out about the low-profile hedge fund manager Warren Buffett has chosen to succeed him, though so far a photograph has not surfaced.

Protecting Goldman’s secrets. Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to protect Goldman Sachs trading secrets by sealing the courtroom in an upcoming trial of a former Goldman employee accused of stealing computer codes.

Proprietary traders still there. Michael Lewis says that although banks appear to be getting rid of their proprietary trading desks, following the financial reform bill, they are really just shifting the traders around to make it look as though they disappeared.

-- Nathaniel Popper