Writedowns may be masking some good news

We've been hit with a lot of news about analysts boosting their estimates for 1Q writedowns for top banks, notably Citigroup. Fortune, however, makes an interesting point. These writedowns basically reflect more securities being marked to market, which in some cases are index driven and may not paint a true picture of the health of some assets. Assets that have been revalued could easily surge in the future, and writeoffs certainly do not mean that the underlying asset has been sold off. One analysts refers to this as "madness." Frankly, this makes analysts' job that much harder. Still, the markets will focus on writedowns and 1Q earnings, and most expect ugly results.  

For more:
- here's the Fortune article

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