Why Citigroup Opened Down Today
An hour into the trading week, Citigroup is down 0.05%, after falling 0.33% in weekend trading: this after a five-day run that saw shares in the superbank rise 3.44%. With two bits of good news that hit the wires over the last three days, a down day for Citi isn't what I expected to see.
Tale of the tickers
But before we dive into that, here's a quick glance at where Citi's peers and the markets are starting out the week's first day of trading:
Bank of America is up 0.08%.
JPMorgan Chase is down 0.59%.
And shares in Wells Fargo are down 0.24%.
The markets are all down, with the broader S&P 500 down 0.20% already, the narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.27%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.10%.
One and one don't always make two
On Friday, Traders Magazine reported that Deutsche Bank edged out Citigroup as the world's top foreign-exchange trading operation. Why is this good news for Citi? Deutsche only beat Citi by the narrowest of margins: 0.28%. This is the closest the two-bank race has been since 2004.
In other news, Citi CEO Michael Corbat told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Saturday that the U.S. economy won't completely make the turn to a full recovery until companies start spending. "We continue to see corporations defer hiring, we continue to see them deferring capital expenditure. Until we really see the other side -- that corporate side -- step in, I don't think we can look and say that we've really got a full U.S. recovery."
This call to action for corporations to start spending was a breath of fresh air to me. It's not often you hear CEOs criticizing corporate America, and it's yet another sign to me that Corbat has his finger on the pulse of his company, the economy, and his own business philosophy. And he's not afraid to speak his mind plainly on important matters. It's statements like this that should make investors feel good about who's on top at Citi.
So why did Citi open down today? One and one don't always make two, and share prices can fall for any company, even in the face of heartening news. And that's why we stress a long-term viewpoint here at The Motley Fool.
On a day-to-day, week-to-week, and even month-to-month basis, the share price of your favorite stocks will invariably spike and plummet. Our advice to you is, focus on the fundamentals of the companies you're invested in, and check in on your stocks once a month, or even once a quarter. Leave the obsessive ticker-checking to the day traders. Your portfolio will thank you, even if your broker won't.
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The article Why Citigroup Opened Down Today originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor John Grgurich owns shares of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. Follow John's dispatches from the not-so-muddy trenches of high-finance and big-banking on Twitter @TMFGrgurich. The Motley Fool recommends Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a lovely disclosure policy.
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