Citibank CFO Gary Crittenden is quoted:
“If current trends prevail, it is fair to conclude we will continue to have substantial additional marks on our subprime exposure this quarter.”
“It’s reasonable to expect that credit costs will continue to rise through 2008, and that provisions for losses in its consumer business will also grow.”
“Expects revenue growth […]

Or … in other words … much money … no brain
The facts … of today only …
-UBS … dissappointing figures … even after very weak expectations …
says … MORE WRITE OFFS … sees MONOLINE induced ones … AUTSCH
-FNM … worse than expected … but positive talk despite their view, housing market will […]

Earnings season in full swing … and despite in numbers seeing a whole bunch of dissappointments …
The companies, which people were most nervous about, come in on the better end
Seemingly some expectations were/are that low, that it was/is hard to beat them on the lower end.
Financials and Techs leading …
Here […]

After the negative surprise of GE … especially after they mentioned that they got hit within the last 2 weeks of March … due to the Bear Stearns turmoil …
We start to understand, why the financials start to move on to clean up their act … at least a bit.
And it seems to be AWFUL!!!
Citibank […]

Citibank is close to announce the sale of around 12bln$ of debt.
This is seen as positive and bullish … hmmmm
My take:
1. This is buy-out related debt, NOT mortgage related … so they sell “better” debt
2. They lock in a loss … and free as it is leveraged debt only a small amount of their balance […]

And again the market plays the card of hope …
After Q1 is booked … and with it some losses …
Everybody is bullish and confident again (unbelievable!)
Still there is NO VISIBILITY at all, how long and deep the recession might be …
NO CHANGES so far in the housing market or at the credit front …
BUT … […]

Only 3 days left to trade in Q1 …
What do we see?
Volume dries out … volatility comes down …
Bad news keeps coming in …
Today …
- a “profit warning” from Deutsche Bank
- an Oppenheimer downgrade for financials
- an Citibank settlement on Enron (expensive)
- the worst new home sales numbers in 13 years
- an Oracle “miss” after […]

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Citibank … falling and falling … they never sleep
More than reversed already ALL of its gains since the market bottom of late 2002 start 2003 …
remember … DAX was below 2.300, the S&P below 900 …