Read the full article here.

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts present an economic outlook. Published on Seeking Alpha

Thomas Lee, US Equity Strategy at JPMorgan, generated some buzz in the past few days when he noticed that the twelve-year-low reached by the Dow last week had only happened two other times in history. The others occurred on April 3, 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, and on December 6, 1974, after the first oil crisis. We now know that recovery in the market was soon to follow, and that the respective recessions ended four to nine months after, although unemployment had yet to peak. In both cases, the market popped and drew in the crowds. Is it really different this time, or is recovery right around the corner?
Read the full article here.

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup. Published on Seeking Alpha

We recently published a report entitled Citigroup: Too Big to Fail or Succeed. It turns out that nothing has changed. Now that we have news of the Smith Barney merger with Morgan Stanley (MS), more information is coming out about how bad it is. More importantly, we want to know if the preferred stock we have been trading, C-P, will be able to stay afloat. We will know more details today on the downsizing program.
Read the full article here.

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup Preferred stock. Published on Seeking Alpha

As active conservative money managers, we at Portfolio Asset Management sought a way to capture appreciation from devastated financial stocks and yet have an increased chance of dependable high yields. With a focus on cash flow, an outgrowth of the demographics of our core retired investor, we began buying financial preferred stock this summer.

The common stock of large financial firms dropped dramatically in 2008. The environment of deleveraging and uncertain future earnings, not to mention the continuing risk of bank failure, tempers the allure of buying into this market plunge. Swapping common stock for debt that trades on an exchange with a daily quote versus the problematic bond pricing systems, makes financial preferred stocks a viable alternative-but not just any preferreds.
Read the full article here.