For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 17, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Citigroup Inc. (C), Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) and Vodafone Plc (VOD).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Citi to Sell Stake in Bellsystem24

Citigroup Inc. (C) announced that it will sell stake in Bellsystem24 to U.S. private equity firm, Bain Capital Partners, in a deal that values the Japanese call center operator at $1.1 billion.

The company announced on Sunday that it

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2009-10-07 RA - RailAmerica RA - RailAmerica plans on offering 21 million shares at a range of $16-$18. Majority owner Fortress will be selling 10.5 million shares in the deal. If over-allotments are exercised, the deal size will be 24.15 million shares. JP Morgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley are leading the deal, Wells Fargo, Dahlman Rose, Lazard, Stifel and Williams Trading co-managing. Post-ipo RA will have 56 million shares outstanding for a market cap of $952 million on a pr ..

U.S. stocks stayed above the threshold reached yesterday as a late-session buying helped offset weakness in banking and technology shares.  Financials dragged on stocks through the early afternoon even as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup reported better-than-expected profit reports.   However, the final fifteen minutes witnessed much of the activity as higher oil prices sent energy stocks higher and, in turn, helped the broader market.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 level for the second-successive day, edging up 47 points, or 0.5%.  The S&P 500 index edged up 4 points, or 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended the day virtually flat.  The gains in the Dow average were led by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) whose shares jumped 2.9%.  The Windows 7 is slated for release on October 22.

Among energy stocks, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares climbed 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively, as crude prices jumped to their highest

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The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is challenging positive conclusions given to Citigroup Inc.'s (C) management in a government-requisitioned review. Some FDIC officials are suspicious about the report, following the interviews of Citi's management who rated the effectiveness of their colleagues. Uncertainty surrounding the integrity of the report may lead the FDIC to assign the report little weight during the next regulatory assessment of the company’s management. The review was conducted this summer for Citi's board by recruiting and consulting firm Egon Zehnder International. It was triggered by the government's stress tests on top banks. Companies found to be in need of additional capital were required to conduct assessments of their management and report the findings to federal regulators. The FDIC, which had concerns about the qualifications of Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and his top management team, required Citigroup to hire an outside firm ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Target Corporation (TGT), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Hasbro Inc. (HAS), Mattel Inc. (MAT) and Citigroup Inc. (C).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Target Lowers Toy Prices

In order to woo customers this holiday season, major discount retailer Target Corporation (TGT) recently announced an aggressive price cut on toys. The announcement came on the back of the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) news on offering 100 toys for

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The management team of Citigroup Inc. (C) received a positive review in an outside appraisal but some shuffling of senior executives could be on the anvil. The review was conducted this summer for Citi's board by recruiting and consulting firm Egon Zehnder International. It was triggered by the government's stress tests on top banks. Companies found to be in need of additional capital were required to conduct assessments of their management and report the findings to federal regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which had concerns about the qualifications of Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and his top management team, required Citigroup to hire an outside firm to perform the review. The report, delivered to Citigroup's board on last Friday, gave strong overall marks to Citigroup's management team and to CEO Vikram Pandit in particular. The review, however, gave less-favorable reckonings to at least two ...

Citigroup Inc. (C) is planning a strategic shift in its investment advisory business by bringing qualified advisors from Citibank branches to provide fee-only investment advisory services instead of commission-based transactions.  The new strategy will give clients who want wealth management services through Citibank branches the option of working with Citi's own financial advisers, or of choosing external independent advisers with whom Citi will begin to form relationships, and who will pay Citi a referral fee.  Citigroup has a relatively small branch network and is starting off with a small brokerage. Citigroup is starting the business with 600 advisers who sit in 1,000 Citibank branches in the United States . Citi plans to eliminate all commission-based compensation by 2011.  The changes are expected to be implemented next year. Apart from providing clients with more transparency, a smaller risk of conflicts of interest and wider geographical footprint, ...

Billionaire investor George Soros said yesterday (Monday) that the U.S. recovery would be a slow one because of all the “basically bankrupt” financial companies impeding it.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Congress agreed Friday that the financial system – not the American taxpayer – should bear the costs of bank bailouts. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), wants the banks to ante up $45 billion – three years’ worth of deposit-insurance premiums – to bail out the fund that insures bank deposits.

When it comes to bank stocks, we all know that there were a number of Money Morning readers shrewd enough to buy Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) shares when the foundering giant’s stock price was below $1 a share.

If you’re one of those investors, good for you: With Citi’s shares now trading at nearly $4.70 a share,

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Citigroup, Inc. (C) has sold off a part of its Diners Club credit card processing business to Elavon, a subsidiary of US Bancorp (USB), as it continues to rid itself of unwanted assets. Elavon acquired Citibank's Diners Club Card merchant-location portfolio in Western Europe, which represents more than 75,000 merchants. Small and mid-size businesses that accept Diners Club cards in the region will now process their transactions through Elavon. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Separately, Elavon has also signed an agreement with Diners Club International, a unit of Discover Financial Services (DFS). The agreement will enable Elavon to provide processing, funding and customer support services for merchants that accept Diners Club International cards in the U.K., Ireland, France, Switzerland and Germany. Citigroup, once the largest U.S. bank by assets, fell behind last year after a series of acquisitions by rivals. The ...

In case you have not heard the news, China has announced that it will be instructing its state-owned enterprises to potentially default on their derivatives contracts. As I have written extensively in the past, the derivatives market is a massive time bomb just waiting to go off. China’s latest move may be the match that lights the fuse.

All told, US Commercial banks own $202 trillion in derivatives in notional value. To put that number into perspective, it’s roughly four times the global GDP. And 96% of this exposure sits on five banks’ balance sheets. I’ve shown the below chart before, but it’s worth re-visiting (chart is denominated in TRILLIONS).

Of course, not ALL of the $202 trillion these guys own is “at risk.” As their name implies, derivatives are “derived” from underlying assets (homes, debt, etc). The actual “at risk” money can be far FAR smaller than the “notional” …