Citigroup: Financial Winners and Losers

(Updated with stock price moves.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup (C Quote) was among the winners of the financial sector Wednesday, one day before it becomes the second large U.S. bank to report third-quarter earnings.

Citigroup will post quarterly results before the start of trading Thursday, with analysts expecting the bank to report a loss of 38 cents a share on revenue of $20.04 billion, according a poll by Thomson Reuters. Investors will be looking for signs that losses in Citi's consumer businesses are moderating.

Lately, Citigroup shares were up 11 cents, or 2.3%, to $4.94.

Already, JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) blew past estimates with its third-quarter report. The bank said third-quarter earnings of $3.6 billion, or 82 cents a share, well ahead of the Thomson Reuters average estimate of 52 cents a share. Revenue rose 3.9% from a year ago to $26.62 billion, also ahead of estimates.

JPMorgan said credit costs remained high in the quarter, and it added $2 billion to consumer credit reserves, bringing the firmwide total to $31.5 billion. Tier 1 Common Capital improved by 8.2%, the bank said. JPMorgan shares were lately climbing $1.28, or 2.8%, to $46.94. Earlier, the stock touched a new 52-week high of $47.47.

Other bank stocks were trading higher on optimism that subsequent earnings reports will also outpace expectations. Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), which will report alongside Citigroup early Thursday, was lately up 3% to $192.93. Bank of America (BAC Quote), which is scheduled to report earnings early Friday, was higher by 3.5% to $18.44.

Away from earnings news, The Financial Times reports that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS Quote) is in the process of working on a government-backed plan to sell all of its 312 RBS-branded branches in England and Wales in order to satisfy European authorities.