Citigroup: Financial Winners and Losers

(Updated with final stock moves.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup (C Quote) was among the weak performers in the financial sector Thursday following reports the bank was considering a plan to pare back its retail banking operations.

Citigroup shares opened higher but were lately down after the Wall Street Journal reported that the bank, which is 34% owned by the U.S. government, would narrow the focus of its U.S. branch network and plans to limit its overall consumer lending in the U.S. primarily to credit cards and "jumbo" mortgages.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said Citigroup would concentrate its branch network in six major metropolitan areas, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington and Miami. Citi's proposal also includes selling branches in Texas and a look at whether it will continue to maintain a presence in Boston and Philadelphia, the Journal reported.

Citigroup was lower by 9 cents, or 2%, to close at at $4.43.

Other bank stocks also finished lower after the Federal Reserve announced plans to pare back two emergency-lending programs. The central bank said it will reduce its 28-day term-auction facility to $25 billion from $75 billion. The Fed also offered a schedule for unwinding its 84-day term-auction facility into January 2010.

Financial stocks were also rattled by the National Association of Realtors' report that existing -home sales fell 2.7% in August. Economists polled by Reuters had expected existing-home sales to rise in August and build on gains from July.

Among bank stocks trading lower, Morgan Stanley (MS Quote) slid 4.1% to $30.73, Bank of America (BAC Quote) was down 3% at $16.98, Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) lost 1.1% to $28.45 and Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) dipped 0.3% to $183.06.