Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: General Electric Co., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and GameStop Corp.

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CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day
the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting
stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include:
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:
GS), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME).

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the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579

Here are highlights from Friday`s Analyst Blog:

GE Down, but Not Out

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reported first-quarter earnings of $0.26 vs.
$0.43 a year ago, but better than the $0.21 consensus expectations. The only
real area of strength for the firm was in its Energy Infrastructure business,
where segment profits increased by 19%. The most significant areas of weakness
were at NBC Universal, which was hit hard by weak advertising revenues
(something shared by almost all media companies) and the GE capital unit.

Investors are probably most concerned about the Capital unit. The good news is
that the unit was still profitable, and it has shrunk its asset base. The bad
news is that the profits are down 58% and the credit trends look awful.

Citi Results: Any Reason to Cheer?

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) today announced that it made a net profit of $1.6
billion, compared with a net loss of $5.1 billion a year earlier. But after
taking into account the conversion and dividend on preferred stock, the loss was
$0.18 per share for common shareholders, which was better than the consensus
estimate of a loss of $0.34 per share.

The results benefited from strong trading income and favorable accounting rules.

Like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup also
benefited strong revenues in fixed income trading, resulting from high
volatility and wider spreads in many products. The fixed income markets group
had revenues of $4.7 billion. However, of this revenue, a net $2.5 billion came
from an accounting rule adopted in 2007, which allowed the company to benefit
from the widening of its credit default swap (CDS) spreads.

U.S. Video Games Sales Drop

Yesterday, the NPD Group reported that US video game sales in March dropped more
than expected. Sales of hardware, software and accessories fell 17% year-on-year
to $1.43 billion. For the first quarter, sales were flat at $4.25 billion. The
double-digit decline was larger than expected. Most forecasts expected software
sales to be flat to down slightly.

Unlike the rest of retail, video games sales have held up extraordinarily well
during this economic downturn. Video games are cheaper form of entertainment
than other activities like going to the movies or going to a sporting event. The
games are played in the home, which ties in with the trend of consumers wanted
to stay home more to save money. That makes the March sales decline important
data that could point to weakness finally spreading into the video games
industry.

The NPD`s March sales report is giving GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) investors a
reason to sell the stock. GME shares are down about 10% since the news was
released yesterday. In response, GameStop management is out this morning trying
to assuage investor fears. The retailer updated its financial outlook for its
first quarter and fiscal year 2009. Management is still seeing strong sell-thru
of new video games released in February and March, such as Street Fighter IV,
Resident Evil 5, and Halo Wars and the launch of Nintendo DSi.

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