Citigroup Fights To The Finish – US-FOREX.US
Citigroup, which is set to report second-quarter earnings on Friday, has been trying to come out ahead by handling operations and troubled assets, not to mention reshuffling management. But will it pay off?Wall Street’s wide range of projections average out to a loss of 37 cents per share. Jason Goldberg of Barclays Capital is optimistic about Citigroup’s quarter, expecting an operating loss of 25 cents per share. Goldberg’s outlook jumps to a gain of 85 cents when including one-time charges, namely the 2.8 billion it accrued from Smith Barney’s joint venture with Morgan Stanley.”We’re constructive on the bigger banks and kind of take a pause when looking at the more regional, midsize players,” Goldberg said. “The bigger banks are benefiting from a good revenue environment amid a strong capital markets backdrop, good mortgage banking activity and a steep yield curve.”Since the beginning of the year, Citi’s shares have tumbled 54.7% over operational struggles and a number of managerial changes. Other big banks like Bank of America
and Wells Fargo
have fallen 6.8% and 16.0%, respectively, while JPMorgan Chase
has risen 13.3%. The SPDR KBW Bank
exchange-traded fund, which follows the banking industry, has fallen 15.5% in 2009, while the Financial Select Sector SPDR
ETF has slipped 3.4%. Citigroup’s report comes on the same day as Bank of America, and follows strong results from JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs
.