The Wall Street Journal reports that just two days after announcing plans to sell as much as $5 billion in shares of Citigroup, the U.S Treasury Department has canceled the sale.
This has been done due to the low prices that would have caused the agency to lose money.
$936.1 million has been received by the Treasury Department in the sale of warrants it had received from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of the support that has been provided by the bank during last year’s financial crisis.
On Friday the Treasury said that it sold more than 88.4 million warrants at a price of $10.75 each in an auction that took place on Thursday.
It was the second auction of warrants from financial institutions to whom support had been given from the government’s $700 billion financial bailout fund.
As an analyst upgrade of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. spurred a rally in financial shares, most U.S. stocks gained, tempering a drop in drugmakers and it has been concerned that the economy will require more government stimulus to end the recession.
Goldman Sachs rallied 3.8 percent as it is said by Bank of America Corp. that record trading revenue may be posted by the firm. Southwestern Energy Co. led energy shares higher as for the first time in eight days natural gas has shown an upward movement.
