Goldman Sachs First Ever 4Q Net Loss!

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss on slumping results at its equities business, the banking giant's first quarterly loss since going public a decade ago.

Goldman and Morgan have become bank holding companies, providing them with access to the federal government's $700 billion rescue plan, allowing them to borrow at the Federal Reserve's discount window and making it easier to get stable sources of funding.

For the period ended Nov. 30, Goldman reported a net loss of $2.12 billion, or $4.97 a share, compared with net income of $3.22 billion, or $7.01 a share, a year earlier. Net revenue was negative $1.58 billion, compared with positive $10.74 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of $3.73 a share on revenue of $932 million.

Analysts had said they expected a big chunk of the government bailout money that large banks received to go toward fourth-quarter write-downs and loss provisions. Goldman Sachs received $10 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Investment-banking revenue slid 48% as financial-advisory revenue dropped 54% amid a decline in industry-wide completed mergers and acquisitions. Goldman said its investment banking transaction backlog fell during the quarter and ended the year "significantly lower" than at the end of 2007.

Revenue plunged to negative $4.36 billion at Goldman's trading and principal investments business, from revenue of $6.93 billion a year earlier. Equities revenue gained 2% as losses in principal strategies failed to offset higher revenue from derivatives.

I feel as though once we are able to get President-Elect Barack Obama in office we will see a smoothing of our economy. I do feel that it will take quite some time to see stability. And remember we need stability before growth. If you plan to invest or buy because of a "good deal" see how smoothly that company has been running and what the trends are. If it is a spike, I strongly disagree with a purchase. In these times it is very necessary to play the field cautiously and wait for stability before selling out, or buying to much.