Why Won't Citi Do a Deal Already?

Oh heck, here it is, with Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take) again. How did this stock get back to $11? Once again this company's like Freddie Mac (FRE - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- it just won't do the equity offering that Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) did and Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) is doing, not to mention the big-daddy deal by JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take).

How is this possible? How can these guys feel they can get away with not doing a deal?

We have filled in the really bad situations one after another -- Fanne/Freddie/AIG/Lehman/WaMu/Wachovia and the like -- but Citigroup still looms. Citigroup has terrible exposure to so many tough units, from credit cards to off-balance-sheet investments. It needs to do a deal more than all of the other Fortress Four.

But it doesn't do it. Maybe it believes that another Wachovia will come along, some bank that would be sacrificed by the feds to benefit Citigroup.

I don't see it happening now, though, with the stakes that the Treasury has taken with so many companies.

Citigroup's back on the griddle. It failed again to do a secondary.

Now the question is, will it get another chance even as the stock just works its way lower and lower and lower?

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan.

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