Confirmation CITIBANK is in trouble

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Citigroup will sell its German retail banking operation to France's Credit Mutuel for $7.7 billion in cash.

In a statement released Friday, Citigroup said the deal includes its Duesseldorf-based Citibank Privatkunden AG & Co. KGaA, along with some affiliates. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter if approved by regulators.

Citibank Germany earned 365 million euros ($573.3 million) in 2007 and had net assets of 944 million euros ($1.5 billion). Citigroup said the deal would result in a post-tax gain of $4 billion.

Credit Mutuel said the deal "affirms its European development strategy, particularly in retail banking, insurance and international financial services."

The acquisition broadens an expansion in the past decade into Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Cooperatively owned, Credit Mutuel is France's second largest retail bank with nearly 15 million customers and more than 5,000 branches, according to the bank's Web site.

In 2007, it earned 2.73 billion euros ($4.3 billion) on sales of 10.6 billion euros ($16.6 billion). It also owns France's CIC corporate and investment bank.

Citibank has reported consecutive quarterly losses from huge missteps in the mortgage market.

Citigroup Inc. has announced 13,200 job cuts since the credit crisis began slamming the banking industry last summer, with $14 billion in value lopped from its investments during the first quarter alone.

"This is another strategic step in our effort to reorganize Citi, strengthen our balance sheet, and put us squarely on the path to future growth driven by our core businesses," Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said in a statement. "In Germany, our talented corporate and investment banking teams remain central to our strategy and we're committed to maintaining their leadership position in this market."

The bank added that it remained "strongly committed to its remaining German businesses, including its full service corporate and investment banking business and its European data center, which is the biggest Citi data center outside the United States."

FNM

FNM is now below my first short target of $15, next target $10.

Called short here over $30.


ONLY WINNERS HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You dont BELIEVE!!!

For those again I warned you this is a BEAR market. Look at the move yesterday and today all wiped out. Sorry to be so bearish but I warned my readers to SELL your stocks for months. Go long ultrashort shares and sell your stocks. We are just 147 points away for the 10000's. Please dont listen to your brokers because you will be BROKER!!. They dont make money when you sell so it is in their interested to tell you to stay in the market. OK don't want to hear that your 401k is now a 201K :):):).

Don't believe it, dont believe we at a bottom crap. This is my LAST warning!!!


MARKETJEDI--

Churn mode

Market in a churn your account mode here- NOTHING is moving to play here.

Today is not a futures friendly day, since I am mostly trading futures for the summer, so I will just sit back and watch till the market tips its hand

Jim Cramer-

Just passing some time and watched like 20 minutes of the knucklehead.
He said what I have been saying for awhile here that the financials are in serious trouble and some may go under. Geez Jim you so smart I thought he said buy Citibank @$23 geez what a play total idiot.
I personally like to play against those in the press like Jim because more than often they are WRONG. I do believe the financials are dead but I will say it here that I think they will bounce in here, yes I wouldn't be short here. Personally I would love for the SKF to come back in the $125-128 range to get long again and for stuff like MER to see $40 to set up a sweet short again.
IF and I say IF, since we are way oversold the Russell could see over 720 again as it has been showing relative strength to the S&P. The S&P could see 1365 and the DOW somewhere in the 11900-12200 area. I wil run these numbers later and give exact numbers to watch IF we do bounce.
Don't be tricked into investing as we are in a BEAR market and these bounces must be shorted or sold into if you are long, nothing more. I know the talking heads will come on when we bounce and are about 500 point higher that we successfully tested a double bottom and crap but dont believe it. For now we will play it close to the vest and play the bounce in this earnings season.
I think we crash and burn in the August-October time frame but we will see soon enough

Bulls are back?

Don't think so!! As we expected the rubberband to the down side has been stretch and we were expecting a bounce back somewhere in here. Now!!! the important technical question is where and how far do we go on this bounce. Tonight I will be doing come charts ot see what levels to watch.
Also importantly Oil gave us some firing power today to go higher. My only gripe with this was that with a $9 move down in Oil this is all the bulls could stage as a rally.
Remember earnings season start tomorrow and I expect us to have a slight upward bias throughout earnings season, so be careful on both side of the game till we get a clear sign

Is confidence lost??

The Market is at a major turning point when it comes to confidence. Has anyone noticed that the FED has said nothing in the last three weeks as we sink further into this sink hole. Bailing out Bear Sterns was the WORST movement the FED has ever done because now they must allow more influential institutions like Citibank, Fannie and Freddie to ultimately fail if they are in serious trouble.
I have been saying it for awhile the FED has no more ammunition and it is proving to be the right hypothesis here. I believe once Oil breaks $150 and the DOW reaches in the 10000 area which could happen this week or next we will get massive selling and HOPEFULLY capitulation.
For all those who dont want to believe we are in a recession stay in your dream world but I think the recession will last till a minimum Nov 2009 and possibly out to 2012. We aint seeing 14000 on the DOW people I said it when we were 13200. I said I believe we likely to see 10000 before 14000 when we were at 13000, I know I got laughed at but hey I got to stick by my analysis.