Meredith Whitney speaks with authority on Citigroup. She predicts Citigroup will announce an $11 billion writedown this Friday, to go with the $18 billion written down in the third and fourth quarters. That translates into a $7 billion loss in the first quarter, notes The Times. As for Merrill Lynch, which has written down $24 billion so far, she expect a further $6 billion writedown. All this likely will be preceded by a smaller (an expected $3 billion) writedown at JP Morgan. We'll see how all this plays out. Smaller banks may be the big surprise this quarter. They are really starting to feel the pain.  

For more:
- here's the article from The Times

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