Bottom ?
"Citigroup has lost about $17.4 billion in the last three quarters and incurred more than $58 billion of write-downs and increased credit costs since the middle of 2007.
On Thursday, Merrill Lynch announced a loss of $4.8 billion, surprising even the most pessimistic analysts. The loss was largely caused by another $9.7 billion in write-downs in mortgage investments. Merrill was forced to raise capital by selling assets like its 20 percent stake in Bloomberg, the financial data service mostly owned by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.
Also on Thursday, JPMorgan Chase said its quarterly income fell 53 percent from the second quarter last year." (NY Times)
Is this the bottom? The banks have been performing writedowns for the past 9 months now. It has to end somehow.
posted by Dody G. at 11:55 AM
7 Comments:
The bottom of what? The writedowns? Maybe. But the real credit losses are only just now beginning...Citi's Q2 provision for loan losses (a combination of how many loans they write off and a reserve build for future losses) was as much as the amount of writedowns (i.e. valuation losses) it had for the quarter.
12:59 PM
Yeah, the writedowns. At some point the market must finish shedding its excesses of overvalued assets. I am wondering whether the previous quarter was it.
1:09 PM
it will never end. look at their level 3 assets. they are marked to makebelieve.
3:17 PM
I can't find their level 3 assets number.
Level 3 Assets
"Level 3 assets are holdings that are so illiquid, or trade so infrequently, that they have no reliable price, so their valuations are based on management's best guess."
4:03 PM
search for their 10-q (quarterly report) and in the document search for level 3. oh and then have fun and compare it to how much equity they have. whoops
3:05 PM
Sweet! I just added some "level 3" assets to my portfolio ;-)
Think I'll use them for a down payment on a house.
Hey, if banks can do it, why wouldn't I be able to!
8:00 PM
I think the crisis just begins... banks from other countries start to have issues as well (besides the famuous names so far).... The trickling down just begins...
4:28 AM
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