Dow Ends Up Nearly 380 on Citigroup Profit News

Source: Associated Press

Dow Ends up Nearly 380 on Citigroup Profit News

Stocks rally after Citi says operating at profit, Bernanke calls for bank reform
By SARA LEPRO and TIM PARADIS AP Business Writers
NEW YORK March 10, 2009 (AP) The Associated Press

Wall Street has had its best day of the year, storming higher after some good news from Citigroup. Citigroup Inc. says it operated at a profit during the first two months of the year. That energized financial stocks and in turn, the entire stock market. Surprised investors drove the major indexes up more than 5.5 percent to their biggest one-day rally of the year. The Dow Jones industrials shot up nearly 380 points.

However, many analysts are still cautious — noting that Wall Street has seen many blips higher since the credit crisis and recession began. Word of Citi's performance broke a months-long torrent of bad news from the banking industry but analysts weren't ready to say the stock market was at a turning point and about to barrel higher after a slide that's lasted more than 16 months.

"To have a sustained rally, we have to have a shift in sentiment," said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re. "One day isn't going to make a trend."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7045395

then I'll see promise:shrug: :hi:

like them dudes making our bombs and bullets....

but it shows how much real demand there is should the gummint ever get off its dead arse and regulate industry sufficiently to make investors minimally confident again.

and President Obama should be given 8 years to fix the damn thing...not 2 friggen months

It makes me sick to hear people on CNBC say this economy is all President Obama's fault...I knew it would not take long for the rest of the media to start following Rush and his claims that it is his fault.

Their Behavior is Lame and Obsolete....

They are very much like BULLIES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y165e1YXK0s

watch michele Bachmann

full of shit

:hi: Welcome to DU! :hi:

Typical Wall street con game.

When they dont want to call a loss a loss they use the Pro Forma "after one time event" accounting to try to convince the rubes it wasnt a loss, it was actually a profit.

I'm no Wall Street guru, but this seems like an empty "profit" to me.

Everyone should read "LIAR'S POKER: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street" by Michael Lewis.

which happens in a few days.

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Friday - Sheila Blair requests half a trillion dollars for FDIC in anticipation of "massive bank failure".
Sunday - Blair is on 60 Minutes, reassuring Americans that FDIC-insured accounts are safe.
Monday - Blair is on morning TV, repeating reassurances.
Tuesday - Citi internal memo hits the news.

From Friday through Monday, rumors swirl about the demise of Citi.
On Tuesday, the magic memo arrives.

About that magic memo...

Pandit Paints A Rosy Picture

Citigroup CEO says the bank has been profitable so far in 2009. Too bad he forgets to mention the possibility of write-downs.

Is it really all unicorn tears and fairy dust over at Citigroup?

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/10/citigroup-vikram-pandit-profits-business-wall-street-citigroup.html

An update to the timeline:

Tuesday - "Mr. Bernanke stoked a new controversy by endorsing more flexible accounting rules that would not force banks to book as many losses during an economic downturn as current rules require.
In so doing, the Fed chairman came closer than other top officials to supporting a policy known as “regulatory forbearance,” a phrase that became an epithet among policy makers after the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/economy/11fed.html

So there it is. Bernanke will allow Citi to hide it's losses.
Presto! Citi is "profitable" again.

Regulatory forbearance + Citi fairy dust memo = stock rally.

In the future, our family will no longer count our mortgage, low income, expensive debt and back taxes as a negative on our balance sheet.
Suddenly we're OK! That was easy.

couple of days a few of my stocks have been climbing a little instead of falling as has been the case.

So, the story is that if we want the market to go up, all we need do is give more money to banks.

Thanks ABC, you're an oracle -- NOT!