BizJournals Portfolio
Nov 19 2008 1:18pm EDT

Citi: From Bad to Worse

Shares in Goldman Sachs are down 3% this afternoon to a new low of just $60 a share -- a level not seen since 1999. To give you an idea of the straits that the financial sector is in, Goldman is outperforming significantly today: JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley are all down between 8% and 12%, while poor Citigroup is down 13% to a highly-distressed level at which it's worth less than US Bancorp.

When Vikram Pandit became Citi's CEO, he can hardly have expected to keep it if the share price fell to single digits. Now that it's at $7, I think it's time for Pandit to offer his resignation. The task facing Citigroup now is not to build a "global universal bank"; it's to stay alive. And Pandit has given no indication he's up to that particular job.

Update: Citi closed down 23% on the day, at $6.42. Goldman fell 10%, JP Morgan fell 11%, Bank of America fell 15%, and Morgan Stanley fell 17%.


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