Of course, expectations weren’t very high to begin with, as news outlets reminded us with varying amounts of hostility this morning after the bank reported second-quarter earnings of $2.2 billion:
Like Bloomberg: “Citigroup Inc., the bank 12 percent- owned by U.S. taxpayers, said profit surged, beating analysts’ estimates … ”
And The Wall Street Journal: “Citigroup had recently seen weak investment-banking results, anemic loan demand and a lack of progress in its consumer-banking business hamper its results.”
And, of course, the Times: “Two years after Citigroup became the poster child for all that went wrong in the financial system, the banking giant announced Monday that it had squeezed out a profit for the third consecutive quarter … Whether the improvement is sustainable remains an open question, given the fragile economy.”
Don’t let the Negative Nancies get you down, Citi. You’re still a winner!
