While it had been reported that J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: sentiment, chart, options) was planning to lay off as much as 10% of its workforce, very little in the way of official data has hit the Street until this afternoon. Unfortunately for recently acquired Washington Mutual, the job cuts will begin with 3,400 jobs at WaMu banking operations in Seattle, according to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. About 1,500 jobs will be cut by the end of January, with another 1,900 employees staying on in transition jobs that will be cut over 2009, the newspaper said.

At last check, JPM shares were off more than 12% due to heavy selling pressure in the financial sector and negative comments from S&P Equity Research. Specifically, the brokerage firm cut its price target on the shares to $9 from $41 per share, and lowered its 2008 and 2009 earnings forecasts for the company. For fiscal 2008, S&P Equity Research now expects JPM to earn $1.67 per share, down from $1.87 per share, with 2009 earnings seen arriving at $2.87 per share, down from $3.21 per share. The brokerage firm cited high loss-provision projections for the lowered forecast.

Sentiment toward JPM is heavily bearish, with the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.32 ranking above 92% of all those taken during the past year. Furthermore, 7 of the 11 analysts following the shares rate them a "hold." Still, there are no "sell" ratings on the equity, leaving room for potentially damaging downgrades from the analyst community.