Citi Reports Profit of $4.4 Billion

"After 2 Years of Losses, Citi Reports Profit of $4.4 Billion. Losses in Citigroup’s domestic mortgages and credit units however continued to mount — Citigroup Holding, which contains the bulk of most-troubled mortgage and credit card assets along with businesses marked for sale, lost $876 million."

The piece goes on to say that the government may soon be selling it's ownership in the company, some 7.7 billion shares...


After 2 Years of Losses, Citi Reports Profit of $4.4 Billion
New York Times by ERIC DASH
April 19, 2010

After nearly two years of being drenched in red ink, Citigroup provided the strongest signs yet that the troubled bank is beginning to recover as it reported a $4.4 billion profit in the first quarter.

The earnings, which handily beat analyst expectations and were the bank’s best since the financial crisis began, were the result of the resurgence in the bond market and improvements in the economy, particularly overseas. Both play to Citigroup’s strengths as a major player in fixed income and emerging markets, and come as some of its rivals benefited from similar trends. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America both reported big first-quarter earnings from hefty trading profits and from adding less money to their loan loss reserves.

Full article at NYTimes.com