Citi Profit Tumbles 57%

Citi (C Quote) rose in early trading Monday after the bank's third-quarter earnings beat sharply reduced analyst estimates.

The New York-based bank made $2.38 billion, or 47 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That's down 57% from the year-ago profit, though it exceeds the 44-cent profit expected by Wall Street analysts.

The announcement comes just two weeks after Citi became the first big bank on Wall Street to warn that results for the September quarter would be pulled down by hefty write-offs tied to the credit crunch that swept markets this summer.

Citi announced writedowns of $3.3 billion on its exposure to leveraged loan commitments, subprime mortgages and fixed-income trading, plus a $2.6 billion hit tied to rising costs in its global consumer business. Citi said the charges would pull its third-quarter bottom line 60% below year-ago levels. ...