Citigroup Earnings: Things to Watch
By Matt Phillips
J.P. Morgan’s bottom-line beat and top-line whiff — tied to lighter-than-expected bond trading revenue — got the financial sector’s earnings season off to a somewhat sloppy start last week. The next major bank to report is Citigroup, due before the open, that is, momentarily.
The consensus expectation of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters calls for a loss of 33 cents a share on revenue of $18.43 billion for the fourth quarter.
Back in October, Heard on the Street’s Peter Eavis pointed out a couple other things to keep an eye on when Citigroup coughs up its results. One is closely watched profit margin that measures interest income on a bank’s assets, after subtracting the bank’s own borrowing costs. In the third quarter, Citigroup’s fell to 2.93%, from 3.24% in the prior quarter and 3.15% a year earlier. This metric matters because it gauges the profitability of a bank’s core business of borrowing money and hopefully lending it out at higher interest rates. (full story wsj.com)
World stocks down ahead of Citigroup earnings
LONDON (AP) – World stock markets fell Tuesday as Japan Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection and investors awaited a raft of fourth-quarter U.S. corporate earnings with a degree of unease following a fairly mixed start to the results season.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 47.77 points, or 0.9 percent, at 5,446.62 while Germany’s DAX fell 49.39 points, or 0.8 percent, at 5,869.16. The CAC-40 was 35.12 points, or 0.9 percent, higher at 3,,942.34.
Wall Street was poised for a subdued start to the week after being closed Monday for the Martin Luther King public holiday. Dow futures were down 13 points, or 0.1 percent, at 10,550 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 1.2 point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,131.10. (onn.tv)
Citigroup Lost $7.6 BILLION In Fourth Quarter
NEW YORK — Citigroup said Tuesday it lost $7.58 billion during the final three months of 2009 as consumers still struggled to repay loans and the bank repaid its government bailout money.
Citigroup on Tuesday said $6.2 billion of the loss was tied to paying back $20 billion in money it received from the government.
The New York-based bank set aside $8.18 billion to cover soured loans during the quarter. However, in an encouraging sign, Citigroup’s provision for loan losses declined 10 percent from the previous quarter and 36 percent from the year-ago period when the credit crisis peaked.(more: huffingtonpost.com)
Crude below $78 amid Citigroup loss, JAL bankruptcy
Crude-oil futures fell below $78 a barrel on Tuesday, as the OPEC oil cartel left its demand forecast unchanged and Citigroup reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $7.6 billion.
Investor sentiment also soured after Japan Airlines Corp. /quotes/comstock/!9205 (JP:9205 5.00, 0.00, 0.00%) filed overnight for court-led rehabilitation — the Japanese equivalent of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The news rekindled concerns over the state of the global economic recovery, which has been closely watched by energy traders.
Crude for February delivery dropped 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $77.68 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
Earlier Tuesday, the contract, which expires at the end of Wednesday’s session, hit an intraday low of $76.76 a barrel. (marketwatch.com)
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