Tag:

writedowns

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Latest Headlines

What to make of deferred tax assets

People have been speculating about whether Citigroup will be forced to write down its deferred tax assets soon. But the issue is really an industry-wide one that has now drawn the attention of regulators. Publicly traded banks have more than $130 billion of deferred tax assets on their books,

Bank losses in perspective

So just how bad are banks getting hit? The Financial Times undertook an analysis of bank losses in relation to historical profits. Merrill Lynch really stands out. Since the credit crunch started last year, Merrill has posted after-tax losses of more than $14 billion. That amounts to about hal

Alt-A loans, the coming convulsion?

There is a subtle undercurrent of fear on Wall Street about Alt-A loans. JPMorgan has about $19.5 billion worth of exposure to Alt-A mortgages, and it likely is not alone. I would be surprised if banks have written off much against these assets. CalculatedRISK notes that "subprime delinquencie

Citigroup's predicament on CDOs

The conventional wisdom right now is that Merrill Lynch's big move to offload its portfolio of collateralized debt obligations just might force Citi  to follow suit. So how large would the writedown be? Goldman Sachs analyst William Tanona has suggested that if Citi's CDOs were marked at the sa

Bill Gross: Writedowns to hit $1 trillion

According to the Financial News Online writedown-o-meter, banks collectively wrote off $205 billion as of June. Since then, the total has climbed higher. While we've heard many people suggest that the worst is over, Bill Gross, the outspoken bond manager at Pimco, is not one of them. He sugges

Citi feeling pressure to take more writedowns?

While Merrill Lynch  has moved to puts its collateralized debt obligation woes behind it, Citi  still has about $23 billion in net exposure to such securities. It's doubtful CDOs are going to magically recover in value anytime soon, so the bank will likely be pressured to follow the lead of

Bank earnings are going to be ugly

Are you ready for the next round of earnings reports? It's going to be pretty ugly. It'd be nice to think that the potential bad news--and analysts have grown more cautious as earnings dates approach--has been priced in already. But you just don't now. The environment in which big banks and broker

What's up with Merrill Lynch?

Merrill Lynch is due to report second-quarter earnings next month. Ahead of the news, most analysts have been busy paring their estimates. CNBC notes that a month ago, analysts were expecting, on average, 44 cents a share. Now that's down to 16 cents a share. There are a host of worries behind

Capital raising to get harder for commercial banks

We all get the sense that banks are due for some more capital raising. But it comes down, in large part, to upcoming writedowns. If they are much worse than expected, banks will have to hit the capital trough again, notes Investors' Business Daily . The problem is, raising capital will only get

Second-quarter earnings still a question mark

Goldman Sachs  analyst William Tanona has reduced his second-quarter earnings estimates at Bear Stearns , Lehman Brothers  and Morgan Stanley , notes the AP . For the second-quarter, the sources of reduced earnings growth likely will shift. The key contributors this time will not be