NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup (C)'s credit default swaps (CDS) are "increasingly supportive" of an equity rally, according to a report this week from Tradition Asiel Securities, a research and trading firm that looks for arbitrage opportunities between equities and CDS.
Tradition Asiel analyst Gary Kelly writes that the price of insuring against a default in $10 million worth of Citigroup bonds "reflects relatively contained risk expectations." Such insurance costs $197,800, according to the report. When Citigroup's CDS traded at similar levels in October and December 2008, the stock was considerably higher (see chart below). Despite gaining ground this week, Citi shares are still down nearly 7% over the past month based on Tuesday's close. The stock has struggled somewhat since the company reported its third-quarter results on Oct. 14. It closed that day at $5, a level it hasn't seen since, and was trading below $4 on an intraday basis as recently as Nov. 6. For the past 52 weeks, it's still down about 50%. That trend over the past month is in keeping with the action in shares of most other big U.S. banks, such as Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS). After Tuesday's closing bell, Citigroup disclosed salary increases for a few of its executives in a regulatory filing but said the annual compensation for CEO Vikram Pandit would stay at $1. CFO John Gerspach saw his salary increase by $100,000 to $500,000, while the salary of James Forese, Citi's co-head of Global Markets, rose by $250,000 to $475,000.
-- Written by Dan Freed in New York.
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| Dow Jones | S&P 500 | NASDAQ | 10-Year Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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