Citi Losses Less than Expected; Merrill Drops $5B

A pair of earnings reports from Citigroup and Merrill Lynch for the third quarter shows just how deeply wounded the big brokerage is, while painting a slightly brighter picture for the big bank, reports Bloomberg. Citi, the nation’s largest bank, beat analyst expectations with a net loss of $2.8 billion; Merrill, bought by Bank of America in September, lost $5.2 billion.

"Every indication that we've had so far from companies that have pre-released earnings just shows that the third quarter was much worse than the second quarter,'' an analyst tells Bloomberg. "There was a much more significant pullback in the third quarter.'' (More financial crisis stories.)