The Writedown Derby Continues

Citigroup this morning and Merrill last night scheduled a quarterly earnings earnings announcement and slipped in the small detail that a lot more shareholder value disapperaed during the quarter.

$9.7 billion for Merrill, $7 billion and change for Citi.

I wonder if, compensation aside, John Thain is happy he took this gig.

Long MER

Progress Away From Mortgages?

The 3G iPhone is launching this morning and there seem to be a lot of genuinely excited people waiting to get one. Upwards earnings revisions driven by new product cycles are the best kind.

GE's quarter wasn't a disaster and the infrastructure business was strong. Absent a global recession, they look fine.

Citigroup is dumping its German retail operations in exchange for some much-needed capital.

BUD may agree to be taken over after all - after all of this hand wringing.

The futures are getting hammered, though. Oil is up again and nobody knows what to do about FNE/FNM.


long BUD