Associated Press
March 10, 2009, 11:35AM
NEW YORK — Wall Street got some good news from Citigroup, and responded with a huge rally.
Led by financial stocks, the market made its first big move upward in weeks today after Citigroup Inc. said it had operated at a profit during the first two months of the year. All the major indexes soared more than 4.5 percent, and the Dow Jones industrials shot up more than 300 points.
Still, while word of Citi’s performance at least temporarily broke a months-long torrent of bad news from the banking industry, analysts weren’t ready to say the stock market was at a turning point and about to barrel higher.
In a letter sent to employees Monday, Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said the first-quarter performance so far has been the bank’s best since the third quarter of 2007 — the last time it recorded net income for a full period. Based on historical revenue and expense rates, Citi’s projected earnings before taxes and one-time charges would be about $8.3 billion for the full quarter.
Pandit declined to say how large credit losses and other one-time items have been that would at least partially offset profit.
Citi shares jumped more than 25 percent while Bank of America Corp. was up more than 22 percent; both are Dow components and helped propel the average higher. Other banking stocks were also rose sharply.
Financial stocks have been a primary driver in a market collapse that has left the major indexes at their lowest point in more than a decade. Every report of loan losses and asset writedowns have sent banking stocks to incredible lows — Citi fell below $1 a share last week. And fears that hundreds of billions of dollars in government bailouts wouldn’t be enough to save the big banks exacerbated the fears on the Street.
But Ben Halliburton, chief investment officer of Tradition Capital Management warned that the advance was likely just another bear market rally. Short-lived rallies are common during periods of extended declines as the market searches for a bottom.
“I would be surprised to see us trade back over 800 in the near term,” he said, referring to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. “The news coming out on the economic front will continue to be rather gloomy.”
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Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/6302696.html 
