Replies to post #13484 on Options Wonderland

[3xBuBu]

Merrill Lynch posts steep 4Q loss
NEW YORK - Merrill Lynch & Co. on Thursday recorded its biggest quarterly loss since being founded 94 years ago after the world's largest brokerage took almost $15 billion worth of write-downs from bad subprime mortgage bets.
The fourth-quarter loss was just short of $10 billion as Merrill Lynch became the latest Wall Street bank bloodied by the ongoing credit crisis. Its massive write-offs came largely from the shrinking value of securities backed by mortgages, which have soured as borrowers are unable to repay them on time.

Merrill Lynch joins rival Wall Street investment houses Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. in posting losses in the last three months of fiscal 2007. Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest bank, reported on Tuesday a quarterly loss of almost $10 billion, the largest in its 196-year history.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_merrill_lynch_9