chicagotribune.com
EARNINGS
Merrill's loss its biggest ever
EARNINGS
Merrill's loss its biggest ever
October 25, 2007
Merrill Lynch & Co. on Wednesday reported its first quarterly loss in
six years and the biggest in its 93-year history after the summer's
credit crisis triggered a larger-than-expected $8.4 billion in write-
downs.
The report sent the company's shares skidding $3.90, or 5.8 percent,
to $63.22, on the New York Stock Exchange.
The world's largest brokerage reported a third-quarter loss after
paying preferred dividends of $2.31 billion, or $2.82 a share,
compared with a profit of $3 billion, or $3.50 a share, a year
earlier. Wall Street expected a loss of 45 cents a share, according to
Thomson Financial, and the results were worse than the loss of 50
cents a share Merrill forecast earlier this month.
Merrill's write-down exceeded Citigroup Inc.'s $6.5 billion, and
increased to more than $30 billion the total third-quarter cost for
bad loans and trading losses reported by the world's biggest
securities firms and banks.
"It's safe to say this is the largest write-down" by a U.S. securities
firm, said Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College in
Riverdale, N.Y., and author of "100 Years of Wall Street."
"The only other time we had such big losses was the Third World debt
crisis in the 1980s. Even then, the losses didn't match this one." ...
Merrill Lynch & Co. on Wednesday reported its first quarterly loss in
six years and the biggest in its 93-year history after the summer's
credit crisis triggered a larger-than-expected $8.4 billion in write-
downs.
The report sent the company's shares skidding $3.90, or 5.8 percent,
to $63.22, on the New York Stock Exchange.
The world's largest brokerage reported a third-quarter loss after
paying preferred dividends of $2.31 billion, or $2.82 a share,
compared with a profit of $3 billion, or $3.50 a share, a year
earlier. Wall Street expected a loss of 45 cents a share, according to
Thomson Financial, and the results were worse than the loss of 50
cents a share Merrill forecast earlier this month.
Merrill's write-down exceeded Citigroup Inc.'s $6.5 billion, and
increased to more than $30 billion the total third-quarter cost for
bad loans and trading losses reported by the world's biggest
securities firms and banks.
"It's safe to say this is the largest write-down" by a U.S. securities
firm, said Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College in
Riverdale, N.Y., and author of "100 Years of Wall Street."
"The only other time we had such big losses was the Third World debt
crisis in the 1980s. Even then, the losses didn't match this one." ...
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