Citigroup Profitable for 2 Months

Citigroup has made a profit for the first two months of 2009 according to the company's CEO, Vikram Pandit. This news caused a rally of banks across the board including Citigroup, 37%, JP Morgan Chase, 21%, Wells Fargo, 17%, Bank of America, 25%, and Royal Bank of Canada, 16%. This is a similar rally to the bank rally in July of 2008 when Wells Fargo beat estimates and the banks took off for a couple of days after being driven down faster and harder than anything before for a month straight.

Barney Frank Calls for Uptick Rule

The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, said he believes the SEC will reinstate the uptick rule in the near future to prevent investors from shorting a stock that has just fallen. Instead they will need to wait for a positive movement in the price of a stock before short selling it. The rule was taken away as the SEC felt investors had other ways to take a short position with the uptick rule in place.