WSJ reports, that early results of the stress test show, that FED will ask “some” banks to raise more capital.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Regional Financial Corp., Fifth Third Bancorp and Wells Fargo are being named in the article.
Most scary about it … banks want the FED to weigh their earnings power on the Q1 figs […]

Major rallye today … why?
I call it the “Basketball Effect”
If you put a basketball under water and let it go … it pops exactly into your face …
Market was under severe pressure over the last month, dropping around 20(!!!)% …
Now … shortly before March future expire/rolled over … a bounce was SURE!
Everybody always […]

What will the Government do with one of the bad banks …. Citibank
Here an interesting calculation by Wall St. Journal …
In a joint statement Monday, the Treasury and regulators said banks shouldn’t be owned by the government, and should have a high-quality capital base.
For some banks, a quick way to do that would be […]

The latest gallows humor among Wall Street traders:
It is now cheaper to buy a share in Citigroup than to withdraw cash from one of its ATMs.
Citigroup’s shares closed at $1.95 apiece on Friday. Customers of other banks pay $3 to use a Citibank machine.
Happy weekend

Interesting piece of thought …
ChartingStocks.net
As it is by far cheaper to nationalize both banks than to keep putting money in the black hole … it might be DUE …

Here an good idea about the “new economy”.
YES, WE CAN
The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.
The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently […]

Today … another round of scary reports … Bank of America and Citibank lost “some more” billions
Bank of America had to take 20bln $ MORE(!) help from the always giving U.S. Govt. and got backstopped on just around 120 bln $ … following in the footsteps of Citibank …
IMHO … this means TWO […]

One day before the ECB meets, markets sell off as news about the financial sectors scare buyers away and bring sellers back as markets trade in the RED for 2009 …
Today, Deutsche Bank surprised the markets with an early earnings report … record loss for Q4 … stock plummeted and still they are talking about […]