Wachovia to post its quarterly results early

Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. bank, pushed up its first-quarter earnings release by four days as the Wall Street Journal reported that the company might receive a capital infusion of as much as $7 billion.

Wachovia plans to announce results no later than 6 a.m. New York time today, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank said in a statement. The bank had previously planned to release its earnings Friday.

New investors including private equity firm Warburg Pincus may give Wachovia $6 billion to $7 billion in return for shares priced at about $23 or $24, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The stock closed at $27.81 on Friday after losing almost half its market value in 12 months.

The world’s biggest banks and securities firms have raised more than $140 billion to replenish capital after enduring $245 billion in write-downs and credit losses since the beginning of 2007.

Wachovia spent more than $24 billion in 2006 to buy Golden West Financial Corp., the Oakland-based home lender, at the height of the housing boom.

Chief Executive Kennedy Thompson has since called the timing a mistake.