Citigroup: Financial Winners and Losers
(
Updated with final stock moves
.)
NEW YORK (
) --
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
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.
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) - Get Report
slid 4.1% to $30.73,
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
was down 3% at $16.98,
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
lost 1.1% to $28.45 and
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
dipped 0.3% to $183.06.
also made headlines after the bank joined
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
and BofA in revamping overdraft fees for customers. The bank said it is eliminating fees for Wells and Wachovia customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less. Wells also will not charge customers more than four overdraft fees per day, the company said.
Already, JPMorgan said starting in the first quarter of 2010 it will make overdraft protection opt-in for all customers. Bank of America said starting next month it won't charge overdraft fees when a customer's account is overdrawn by less than $10 for one day.
Elsewhere, bond insurers
MBIA
(MBI) - Get Report
and
Ambac Financial
(ABK)
relinquished early gains after pushing to their highest levels in 11 months. Ambac shares finished down 0.6% to $1.74, having touched an intraday high of $1.92, and MBIA finished 3.2% lower at $7.50.
-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York
.
