Datek's Trading Volume Falls in May

Trading volume continued to decline in May for online brokerage Datek, as increasing losses in the stock market discouraged investors from putting their money in equities.

Datek, which is being acquired by Ameritrade (AMTD Quote - Cramer on AMTD - Stock Picks), said Thursday that average daily trades in May fell 2% from April to 70,000. That puts the daily trading activity for the company down 8% for the first two months of the quarter.

Ameritrade should release its own trading results for May within the next few days. If Ameritrade releases figures along the lines of Datek, it might be on track to meet its second-quarter earnings estimates.

In a research note, Salomon Smith Barney analyst Guy Moszkowski said that Ameritrade needs to post a daily average of 79,000 trades, down 11% from the first quarter, to make his second-quarter earnings estimate of 2 cents a share. In April, the company reported an average of 78,000 daily trades, down 12% compared with the average of about 89,000 for the entire first quarter.

Analysts, on average, expect Ameritrade to earn 1 cent a share for the second quarter, down from 4 cents in the first quarter.

Rival online brokerage Charles Schwab (SCH Quote - Cramer on SCH - Stock Picks) should report its monthly results by the end of next week. In April, Schwab reported an average of 134,000 trades a day, a 9% decline from the daily average in the first quarter. Analysts expect Schwab to earn 9 cents a share for the second quarter, up from 8 cents in the first quarter.

E*Trade (ET Quote - Cramer on ET - Stock Picks) doesn't release monthly statistics, but Wall Street expects the company to earn 11 cents a share in the second quarter, up from 8 cents in the first quarter.

Shares of Ameritrade were falling 2.6% to $4.56. Schwab was losing 1.7% to $12.17, and E*Trade was off 4.7% to $5.53.