Oppenheimer Takes Down Citigroup (C) And Merrill Lynch (MER), Again

Meredith Whitney of Opperheimer covers financial stocks, but she clearly hates them. At least for the time being.

She is no making the point that as MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK) lose their "AAA" status, companies like Citigroup (C) and Merrill Lynch (MER) face greater write-downs.

According to Bloomberg, the analyst said "Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS AG may post further writedowns of $10 billion on their debt holdings after the two biggest bond insurers were stripped of their AAA rankings."

Even with bad news out of Lehman (LEH) today, Citigroup (C) is holding above $20. That may not last more than another week or so.

Douglas A. McIntyre