Download Oct 5 independent research report on C.

I am concerned that the current broad market rally is the peak of the stock cycle, hyped beyond all semblance of rationality, led by a cheerleader President, the likes of which we have not seen for many years, if ever in the U.S.

The President is going to speak at 11:00am to tell us how he has solved the budget deficit problem. Dream along voters.

The second shoe from the Administration drops at 2:00pm today. Nothing the Administration is going to say today or until the People vote in early November election is going to be worth listening to. To me, it's a matter of his desperately fighting a "War on Re-election". All the political chips have been called in; no "winning" card will be withheld from play.

This doesn't seem to have much to do with Citigroup, but it does. You see, I like the Company and I want to buy the stock; but now is not the time.

When the right time comes, I'll be screaming from a rooftop " Toronto or Nassau, Bahamas, I haven't figured out yet " and I'll be telling readers to "back up the truck".

As Punk Ziegel points out, "Citigroup is executing." I totally agree.

I couldn't get this blog article out prior to the open today, and I see that C is getting hammered.

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Citigroup [GICS 40, Dow 30, Cara 100]
(C: Yahoo Finance file)
(C: StockChart chart)
(C: Investertech chart)
(C: ADVFN Financial Data)(C: ADVFN Financial Data)
(C: Value Line Report Aug. 25: next one is due Nov. 25)

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ADDENDUM

I omitted to say that I saw former Citi Chairman and CEO Sandy Weill interviewed on PBS Nightly Business News and CNBC yesterday. He seemed to be saying that, although Citi was built through acquisitions, they are presently not in a position to do anything big on that score because their stock is too low.

He was saying that Citi must execute in many areas of operations to increase profitability and that will result in the stock price appreciating. He clearly wants to see Citi take better care of its existing business before trying to grow through acquisitions.

As I see it, Weill was definitely not pumping the stock as many of us have seen him do in his previous television appearances when he was running the ship at Citigroup. He also sees Eliot Spitzer as the next Governor of NY and, despite Citi's history of fines and penalties brought on by Spitzer, he obviously has high regard for him.

Better execution and tighter corporate governance are the issues and Eliot is the Man.

I am going to make a forecast here: I think C will become the largest capitalization stock in the Dow 30 before 2010, and it's happening because of execution today, and probably acquisitions tomorrow.

Download MS Oct 10 report on Citigroup.