. >> tom: investors of all sizes were wading through citigroup's earnings.it's consumer banking business was up as well as the stock and bond business. the ruts helped lift citi stock today, and several other financial earnings are die later this week. a strategist with the firm in new york. fred, great to have you. >> do banking stocks present a good value ahead of earning season. >> great to be here, tom. we think selectively they do. the challenge for investors has been the lack of dividends. we're starting to have those come true, and starting to think these stocks can work worry smaller investors and looking for yield and price appreciation. >> leetsds talk about the core business of banking. that's getting deposits and lending it out. that's a profitable business with the low interest rates, isn't it. >> the low interest rates on the one hand helped the borrowers a lot. however, for the banks, the flat yield curve means taking deposits at low levels and not lending them out at high levels. the second challenge is the deposits, investors aren't getting

in this case she is upgrading citigroup from underperforming to a hold. this is research from yesterday following better than expected earnings from citigroup, but it's just hitting the market now, which is why we're talking about it. we're upgrading citi shares in improving metrics, temper the probability of a significant absolute share price decline. she goes on to say, they beat street expectations in terms of their earnings per share, they were driven by banking. i was taking a look at the comps this morning in which goldman sachs announced. jp morgan actually did a shade better than goldman sachs. goldman sachs actually shook them on equities. >> you already told us you're in this stock. anybody else expect to get in there? >> the big catalyst here, they lost $137 million based on the stake that they still have in morgan stanley, smith, barney. we know morgan stanley is anxious to finish the transaction and take the whole thing. citigroup finally getting the last of smith barney off their balance sheet and out of the expense column, so i think that m

joining us is abigail and citigroup rolled over.ow the financials have been strong but citigroup rolled over after the stress results came out and they failed them and we're not allowed to issue a dividend. what did that do to the chart here? >> it's destroyed the chart and probably makes sense to take profits. citigroup is reversing its trend line. all of this on a bear penant. they have started to confirm today if it drops below 33, we had like to see that on a closing basis. if it drops below 33, it carry as target of 28, 29. it probably makes sense to take profits in citigroup on this bear penant and these other bear signals. >> does that go for the whole financial sector? >> it actually does, bill. if we look at a similar chart, it's breached the trend line and is above the moving average. this pattern carries a target of 14 confirms at 15. if it drops below a 50-day moving average and then 15, it's very likely that we're looking at 5% plus decline on the days and weeks ahead. the financial sector may take a tumble. >> and this

the question is, does citigroup listen to them? >> we're going to find out. >> among the shareholders, a group of nuns. we've seen their strength portrayed on the big screen keeping higher-ups honest, but that story line is playing out right now. a group from new jersey, the sisters of charity of st. elizabeth want accountability with that pay. barbara aires is one of those nuns. >> it's a message to the board of directors of citi. it's not a personal thing against mr. pandit, but performance must count. rallies around the country against the 1% is a clear sign that people are saying somebody has to tend to this. >> well, the chairman of citigroup is now calling the vote a, quote, serious matter and said the board will meet with shareholders to discuss their concerns, no word they'll ask the ceo to give back that pay. >> tonight another group of billionaires are planning their next adventure, hoping to strike gold not on wall street but in space. the guys from google are teaming up with james cameron to become space invaders and th

and that was exactly citigroup's rationale in this case as well. point of view as described in their proxy was that they believe that citigroup had strong performance for 2011 and even more importantly they belie ty've established a strong foundation for continued growth of the company. >> warner: they also pointed out that at least in terms of salary mr. pandit took just a dollar a year in 2009 and 2010. didn't they make a point of that? >> they recognized that his basalry was a dollar a year in the prior years. although there was no indication, no suggestion, that this was intended to be any type of makeup. this was really viewed as we want to recognize the company's turnaround, the company's performance, and the c.e.o. mr. panditho'sed ushere. th also cnize that they were one of the companies that received government funds and that they fully paid back the government and that there was what appears to be at least among the board, certainly within the company, a view that the performance was strong and it supported the payouts that they determine

. >> citigroup, aig. >> citigroup is better off-- >> merrill-lynch.arp has nothing to do with the economy. you know why the economy is lousy because president obama did a stimulus package and it failed, didn't know it was failing and-- >> by the way, tarp set the stage for bailouts that needed to be bailed out rescues we had to come back and rescue again. we extended it beyond its origin tensions and pretty soon we were using the money to pay for cash for clunkers, to go back and rescue the automakers. >> those are pennies, pennies, neil. >> not-- >> may be pennies for you, mr. hollywood star, but the bottom line, a slippery slope. >> those are pennies. >> this has opened the door to untold billions going it bailout other businesses down the road, mark my words. number one, and number two, pan to throw this-- a lot of these losses are because of general motors, so to dove tail with the last segment, the unions makers and the third thing, you want to worry and wring your hands, and we're neck deep in fannie mae and freddie mac, we're neck deep in these

to have it overturned and then went immediately to where did he go after that then they went to citigroup of course that he cashed in for hundreds of billions of dollars by using an insider washington connections as one of these is one of the biggest in the original revolving door door goldman sachs private sector back to the government back to the private sector making a huge paycheck on each transaction and then walking away from the scene saying oh and work as a university professor or president a university like larry summers like over to teach the next generation of crooks in this country and in a follow up interview regarding this richard parsons is asked about these too big to fail banks that have emerged because of the repeal of glass steagall of course and here's where it gets to the market fundamentalism the markets as gods he said people have a sort of notion that well we can decide that's too big to manage but it got that way because there was a market need and institutions find and follow the needs of the marketplace so what we have to do is we have to learn how to improve ou

will citigroup listen? >> reporter: shareholders said no way. voting down the salary that citigroup gave its ceo for its work this past year, $14.9 million, and retention pay, $10 million, extra money to keep him from going elsewhere. after the finance collapse that brought about a recession and bailout of the banks, shareholders are now allowed to have a vote. they spoke up all right. the question, will it matter. vote intended to put pressure on the bank. but is not legally binding. >> this has only been in place since the financial crisis. it's a new thing for the shareholders, they are really getting used to the power that they have. >> a voice. will citigroup listen to them? >> among the shareholders, a group of nuns. we've seen their strength portrayed on the big screen keeping higher-ups honest, but that story line is playing out right now. the sisters of charity of st. elizabeth want accountability with that pay. barb fr barb /* airs is one of those nuns. >> it's a message to the board of directors of citi. it's not a personal thing agai

saying take the chicken to take a steak to duck it's all tainted meat stacked up five high that citigroup got to get insurance tainted seedings tainted management it's a stink did stink hole of fraud larceny and mendacity technical violation that the . yes it was the one nine hundred ninety eight merger of citi group and travelers group that depended on the u.s. government overturning the portion of the depression air act that required banks to be separate from capital market businesses like traveler salomon smith barney holdings might well set aside sandy weill what was the architect of this conglomeration and of course the book to made his moneys on the campus somewhere smoking a big fat cigar you know trying to investors billions in some way that's not going to be you know inflationary well of course wasn't also robert rubin who was in the clinton administration as the treasury secretary who campaigned to have it overturned and then went immediately to where did he go after that then they went to citigroup of course that he cashed in for hundreds of billions of dollars by using an insi

citigroup investors reject pay plan.ld pass the buffett rule. i wrote it last night. >> why should they? >> why, why, why? i think they should, so continue. >> because it's petty cash. at best, it will raise 3% to 5 a%, but yet it's occupying 90% of its political dialogue. the government will get a little bit more cash, it is petty cash, we have got bigger problems to fight over. the gop is backing into a corner, they're unable now to get anything done because the president slammed them at every turn. somebody's got to give somewhere, it's a good place to start, gop, pass it, let's move on, we have got hundreds of billions of dollars of other problems, deficit, obesity, we have got a lot of things to fight. this is not a place to make a standard, pass the buffett rule. move on. >> he's saying if they're smart the gop will take this issue off the table for obama. we're only talk about 0.08% of filers. >> i portend some unusual e-mails, but i portend i will be okay. >> i portend that too. there's absolutely something not r

. >> well, call it another case of selective outrage from our elected officials, citigroup shareholders getting a big thumbs down to some big pay day for executives and that may bode possible because of financial regulations and meantime, facebook' boss apparently acting alone and without a net and mark zuckerberg making a billion dollar deal sigh stepping the board. >> if i was a shareholder i would be outraged by some of the stuff that facebook is doing. by the way cover facebook and wall street and secretive. this is a company that boasts to be open architecture and everything, and they're secretive and almost like totalitarian when it comes to dealing with this. >> >>-- >> and facebook was bailed out and citigroup bailed out. they had to issue the shares. >> and citigroup, reason why the shareholders had a chance to vote it down it's in the a company owned by five or six institutional investors. he's the ceo and when they vote on his pay package, this is hugely diluted because of the financial crisis and many more shareholders are voting and-- >> here is the deal amilya, i'm not tal

actually don't know what they do. >> it's a very complex business sort of, again, like citigroup.to study it a long time to really get comfortable with it, but it's a global insurance company. a lot of different lines of business, but we think it's one of the premiere global financial companies, but they made a lot of mistakes in the downturn, and they are still trying to run off -- either run off or selloff some bad businesses. we think there are unlikely to be any big negative surprises to the downside and when they finish with the bad business they are left with a fabulous global franchise and today the franchise is changing at 40% to tangible book value and we think that is likely good. >> not hurt by the low rates and the flow of the yield rate. >> i think all insurance companies are sort of in the short term, that's a head wind, but we think when you're buying a global franchise business at a 40% discount to book you're getting compensated to wait until that improves. >> does aig have a lot of exposure to some of the things that are going to take place with dodd/frank or som

it was a big group, citigroup normalized earnings.at level should be or could be? >> not yet. one of the reasons being is citiholdings has come down very nicely, 11% of total assets. that's where all the toxic assets are from the '08/'09 meltdown. that number needs to get close to zero before we can say we're at normalized earnings. >> what would that normalized number look like in your mind? >> i would say we're pointing to a number about 1% on assets from city, anywhere from 90 basis points to 1% will normalized for us and we're not there yet. >> gerard, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> still ahead, we'll talk energy security with fedex chairman and ceo fred smith and vice chairman joe lutz. [ nadine ] buzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, you know, typical alarm clock. i am so glad to get rid of it. just to be able to wake up in the morning on your own. that's a big accomplishment to me. i don't know how much money i need. but i know that whatever i have that's what i'm going to live within. ♪ ♪ ♪ are you still sleeping? just wanted to chec

is now been penalised by the bank of england's money printing should be compensated for it while citigroup investors say exactly should not be compensated so handsome late for poor performance out the first for a big us bank but does it matter we'll tell you what we think let's get to two days capital account. the international monetary fund and the world bank are gearing up for their spring meeting that's happening now in d.c. they get officially underway at the end of this week in washington there is a view outside take a look at this the giant slauson a screen of world bank propaganda that's set up outside getting ready for these meetings that's amusing we don't think we've seen that before the world bank's mission remember is just support or to reduce poverty but it's been subject of course to much criticism over the years for social engineering shock therapy the lending conditions of the washington consensus so whatever on the poor we have some of our own ideas first let's look back at lore remember in medieval europe there were people like robin hood who would steal from the rich and

>> i'm not running into the loving arms of citigroup or i've become bullish with citigroup. what i mean is i don't see any near term negative catalyst and it's i didn't see the quarter was fine. there's no near term negative that's going to impale capital and enough's enough. you go to a hold. but that means the stock could tread water for years to come. >> has it stopped going down? >> there's less of risk of an issue that's going to come and blind side the company for certain. now the issue is, how does the company grow? how does the company generate capital? i'm not worried about anything but i'm also not excited about anything. doesn't mean that i don't find interesting divisions of the company but in the collective, it's not that interesting of a stock. >> let me get your take on europe, we're having this whole debate on where we are on the global economy and it seems to me -- i'd like to know what you're hearing from your clients and the hedge funds in particular. has europe once again become an urgent negative in the market? because all year the ecb took that urgency

. >> there was a historic vote on wall street recently concerning citigroup shareholders. let's talk about that. they voted. >> you're seeing -- you talk about the pendulum swinging the other way. you had all this ease and oversight and regulation. board members are the ones who usually are charged with setting director pay. typically only 1% of board member approvals are not made for the c.e.o. pay. this year it's up to 10%. the big one in the news now is city growp. we give the -- citigroup. we give the banks all this money and they give out all this pay. so they voted against it. now they have to go back and reorganize. the real reason they voted behind it and the person looking out for your interest here was calpers, the real strong money manager, handles the california pension system. >> we've run out of time. thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure.

morgan and citigroup. we'll see how the response is today.ixed income currency, commodities, $3.64 billion was the revenue number. that was 20% lower than what they call a solid quarter in the first quarter of 2011. reflective of what's been a slow pace of activity. as you see some of the segment revenues we have broken out for you. nobody is knocking the cover off the ball. it's about not just comparisons but market share which we don't know about yet and comparisons with competitors such as j.p. morgan. but always hard to do apples to apples. they include different things in the basket, so to speak. >> been a couple quarters since the company said the markets are treacherous. we'll rein in risk. some of blankfein's comments talk about growth here and there. >> they talk about paths for growth. something that didn't grow was operating expenses which were down, i believe, 14%. the street probably likes that. but that's a significant reduction over the first quarter. 41% higher in the first quarter of '11 but you can't count that. accrual of c

citigroup is up 27% year to date. down 13% from the april high. to me in some ways, some of the mania around the high flyers that is driving a lot of the action in the nasdaq that had their best week in three months has kind of waned a little bit in the other best performing sectors of the q1, the bank stocks. for the reasons you just said, three reasons why i want to look at citigroup here. a lot of it is existing performance that has to do with sentiment and they failed the test and one of the biggest money center banks in the world and most exposed to europe. there things going on with the chart that shows you. $32. that's a big level. if we get down to third, that is danger zone on the chart. the last is that maybe the earnings that we saw in q1 that reported 95 cents in earnings for the last two years. they have done about a buck and that's as good as it gets. in 2011 and 2010, the dollar earnings dropped to 40 cents. huh pick ups in both of those years that caused earnings to be strained. i top the look out and make somewhat of a speculative

so a bit of a wake-up call i think for citigroup management. back to you. >> yeah, geoff, in the past these boards have just rubber stamped the compensation. thanks so much. >>> still ahead on "way too early," to the surprise of absolutely no one, kentucky's entire starting five of underclass men leaving for the nba draft. the world cats could give the league its first and second picks. meanwhile, coach calipari back home reloading with another class of 18-year-olds who will make a run next year at the national title. sports just ahead. plus, the dog will not go away. so to make a point about the absurdity of the story, conservatives have dug up an obama dog tale of their own. who says this campaign is focused on meaningless trivia? >> eight floors of the embassy collapsed like a house of cards according to our correspondent. bodies were removed almost instantly, many of them were trapped in the rubble of course. it is the worst such attack on an american installation in that embattled part of the world in anyone's memory. i love cash back. wit

citigroup was getting back on its feet.t a salary of $1.67 million and a bonus of $5.3 million. and then in 2012 he was going to get $15 million and a bonus over four years of $40 million. well, to be fair he must have done great right? wrong again bob. in 2011 in citigroup dropped 44%. why are they getting this money when t

in 2011 in citigroup dropped

banks with citigroup publishing its first quarter results.d lieu four states across the midwest over the weekend. we bring you the latest right after this break. >>> time for your global markets report. take a look at the u.s. futures. looking to be a higher on open at this point. the dow could be higher by 24 points, nasdaq by nearly 3 and the s&p 500 higher by 2. it after stocks finished in the red on friday for the day and the week. the dow logging a triple digit loss on friday, s&p settling in at 1370. financials the worst performers on the day despite the fact that we saw strong earnings from jpmorgan and wells fargo. of course it was that lower than expected first quarter gdp number weighing on the market. high spanish bond yields bringing our markets down. but this morning looking like a change in tide here and looking like some positive sentiment. christine, how does it look in asia? >> well, we are reacting to the fall on wall street on friday, not to mention renewed concerns about the debt crisis in the eurozone. but what was domina

report," the dow stocks shine better than expected retail sales, pretty good earnings report for citigroup, banks went up today. can we continue to count on the uptrend? don't forget, folks, free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. you can't have capitalism without capital. so why tax capital two and three times? i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. i have two products in front of you. we are going to start with product x. this is a very affordable product that will help save you a, lot of money. i like it.. i like it too. this is product y. this is a much more expensive product. you will not see a lot of savings with this one... harsh. you chose geico and you did not choose their competitor. was this your first car insurance taste test? ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] not everything powerful has to guzzle fuel. the 2012 e-class bluetec from mercedes-benz. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-ben financial services. >>> in case you're just joining us, the senate has voted down the buffett tax. it would raise the minimum tax on millionaires to

citigroup higher today. what are you doing with these banks? goldman sachs, do you buy ahead of these numbers? >> i am the renowned bear on the panel as far as banks are concerned. i look at goldman. trading at 0.8 times book. it's been a decent performer. you've seen decent numbers coming out of fixed income trading. it doesn't meet my criteria. if that meets your criteria, going for it. to me i'll be looking more toward a black. >> i did buy goldman sachs last week. over the last few weeks i talked about the potential for trading revenues for a lot of these banks to be better than people think. q-1, the trading environment looks much better. sovereign debt market in europe. healing for the moment. not permanently. >> at least first quarter. >> citigroup's numbers look great here. goldman sachs, this will be more of a trading quarter that looks like q-1 2011 than the q-3 loss you saw. upside for goldman sachs is a surprise to the 355 street estimate. >> you have to marry the two theories here. citi is telling us with the rates arbitrage and fi

>> citigroup profits were better than expected.tions and then revenue fell 2% for the quarter. shares are responding positively thus far this morning. had been up as much as 3.5%. showing 2% gain. anthony is an analyst at raymond james who covers citigroup. anthony, characterize the quarter for me first off. was it as good as the market seems to think or more of a sigh of relief on the part of investors? >> a little bit of both. the actual revenue when you adjust for one-time items and cva, dva was ahead of our expectations as were the eps. and the eps beat was driven primarily by fixed income results. >> that can be a wild card, can't it, quarter to quarter. any expectation that that can continue? >> we had the tale of two halves, where the first half of the year was very strong for market-related revenue but the second half of the year, especially since the financial crisis we had in the summer sparked very low levels of revenue. the bounce back and below the first quarter of last year. citi actually beat last year's very strong

jenna: this is what citigroup wanted to do.isis and tried to get the bank back to solid ground was earning a dollar a year for last couple years. >> right. jenna: the company wanted to increase his pay from a dollar to nearly $50 million. the shareholders said, no, we don't want that. however their vote is nonbinding. meaning the company doesn't even need to follow it. >> that's right. jenna: is this regulation or this, this right to do this by the shareholders really something that can be a game-changer for some of these banks or is it just kind of lip service right now? >> well, first of all, jenna, you are exactly right in most cases these votes are nonbinding on the corporate board, but you know what? they ignore what the shareholders start saying at their own peril. these are shareholders sending a signal, jenna. by the way the shareholders are owners of the company. so they should have some say in what the executive compensation is. but on the other hand, jenna, there is a real opportunity for kind of grandstanding here.