More pessimism about Goldman Sachs' Q1

Citi analyst Prashant Bhatia has joined the herd of other analysts who are cutting first-quarter earnings estimates for Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. He figures a variety of writedowns will take a toll. Although people have been talking about leveraged loan writedowns in the case of Goldman Sachs, only $1 billion of Bhatia's predicted $2.7 billion writedown comes from declining leverage loans. Commercial holdings may also be a weak spot. Bhatia cut his earnings estimate for Goldman Sachs to $3.70 per share from $6.70 per share.

Other analysts are even more pessimistic. Lehman Brothers analyst Roger Freeman expects just $2.10 per share. Such disparity for investment banks is not unusual, and I wouldn't be surprised if analysts pared more as the announcement approaches. 

For more:
- here's an AP brief

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