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Financial Winners & Losers: Citigroup

The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Shares of national banks plunged Friday amid worries about the economy and concerns that the government's financial rescue plan won't be sufficient to cover future losses.

Leading the way was Citigroup (C Quote), which is scheduled to hold a board meeting Friday to discuss whether to sell all or part of itself, The Wall Street Journal reported. Citigroup's shares tumbled more than 20% to below $4 a share -- their lowest level in more than 15 years.

Concerns are growing that the deteriorating economy and still-turbulent markets will slam banks with more write-downs in the coming quarters. What began as a subprime residential mortgage crisis has ballooned into a full-blown debt crisis, escalating defaults in everything from leveraged loans to credit card debt to commercial real estate loans.

Citi has been battered during the credit crisis, having posted four consecutive quarterly losses. Citi reported a loss of $2.8 billion for the third quarter. Analysts widely expect it to post a fifth consecutive loss as well.

Earlier this week it said it plans to cut an additional 53,000 jobs on top of 22,000 cuts previously announced. The job cuts are part of a broader plan to reduce expenses in 2009.

Shares of Citi fell $1, or 21%, to $3.71 in afternoon trading after hitting a low of $3.05 earlier in the session. Citi shares have fallen 83% since the beginning of the year.

Other national banks are not faring much better.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) shares tumbled to a six-year low, shedding $1.30, or 5.6%, to $22.08 in afternoon trading, after earlier falling as low as $19.83 - their lowest point since 2002.

In a note to clients Friday, Citi Investment Research analyst Keith Horowitz said commercial real estate is quickly becoming a bigger issue for the New York-based bank.

"Commercial real estate fundamentals are deteriorating both from the demand side as an economic downturn reduces need for space and lower valuations due to tighter/more expensive credit availability," Horowitz wrote.

As of Sept. 30, JPMorgan held $9.3 billion of what he sees as "risk" commercial mortgage-backed securities in its investment bank. Horowitz estimates that JPMorgan could mark down $300 million to $400 million on this portfolio.

Bank of America (BAC Quote) shares were down 50 cents, or 4.4%, to $10.75, a day after falling 10% Thursday, while Wells Fargo (WB Quote) shares fell $1.30, or 5.8%, to $21.23 in afternoon trading.