Wall Street was thrilled that Citigroup cleared its books of much of the debris left by the hurricane which swept through the credit markets. Citi wrote off billions on its holdings of CDOs and auction rate securities and other high risk pools which are now can barely be given away, let alone sold.
But analysts I talked to today warned that Citi still faces the same kind of risk other financial sector companies face in this time of economic crisis. More write-downs are expected for credit, home equity, mortgage and other kinds of retail debt as consumers battle with lower home values and higher prices for food and energy.
By the way, for those of you who saw my Tech Talk segment last night, I got a call today from Verizon. Stay tuned for more.
