Investment "Logic"

Oh how the times change so easily.  It's become apparent that the stock market of 2017 is gone and what has taken its place is one filled with uncertainty and volatility.  Repeatedly over the last number of weeks we face wild swings as our President tweets, aids calm fears, and new complications arise.  It's important to note that for the last month and a half, we've truly been in the grips of a macro environment where everything from Presidential Tweets, Fed statements, Jobs reports, and other extraneous political and macroeconomic news controls the markets.  The one thing that could potentially put some calm to the market - earnings season - only started on Friday and despite what was a strong showing out of our biggest banks, what started as strong gains were wiped out and met with losses as people got prepared for a weekend which included fears of us dropping missiles on Syria (it happened Friday night and then called a "complete success"), as well as fea...

On Friday, April 13, Citigroup announced their results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.  Earnings came in at $1.68, beating estimates of $1.61.  Revenues were in line with expectations of $16.86B, delivering results of $18.87B.  The earnings number was a 24% increase from a year ago whereas the revenues were a 3% increase.  It's also worth noting that operating margins were up 4% from a year ago while the efficiency ratio continues to improve for the sixth consecutive quarter, up 50 basis points to 58.4% from a year ago. Looking deeper, Global Consumer Banking (GCB) revenues increased 6% from a year ago with solid growth in both North America and International businesses.  There is a one-time boost from the sale of the Hilton brand cards which has about a 2% impact.  Credit costs rose 3% representing both volume growth and seasoning of their cards business in both North America and International.  NCLs grew overall in GCB, but much of t...