The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

The Citi Sleeps

Providing customers a hint that they're in harm's way is probably something you'd prefer to do before the anvil falls on their heads. But Citigroup(C), of all outfits, finally saw fit this week to cut the ratings of nine banks to ribbons, on account of the credit crisis and the entire mortgage industry falling down the Black Hole of Calcutta.

That's right. The analysts at the poster child for bank woes blinked awake this week and realized bank stocks might be in trouble.

In all, Citi rates nine banks as sells, and ranks three as holds. But, not wanting to miss a turn, the analyst heeded yet another bit of wisdom from Wall Street that is filed under "better late than never." The Citigroup analyst, always forward-looking, was weighing whether the bottom was in, and whether it was time to mortgage the farm -- if you can get a mortgage -- and buy bank shares.

"The best strategy," he said, "is to be positioned to keep one's powder dry to take advantage of better investment opportunities." Like, possibly, the pure-play mortgage companies? Uh, dude, another crack analyst at your shop was busy cutting ratings on those, including Countrywide(CFC), this week too. Welcome back from dreamland.

Dumb-o-meter Score: 59. Timing is everything in life. It just isn't much on Wall Street.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints