More than $16 billion in write-downs and higher consumer credit costs caused the company to record a loss of $5.11 billion, or $1.02 a share, compared with a profit of $5.01 billion, or $1.01 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 48% to $13.22 billion.

Reuters analysts expected an average loss of 96 cents a share and revenue of $14.35 billion.

“This is the quarter they get to clear the decks,” Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. in Boston, told Reuters. “(Chief Executive Officer) Vikram Pandit is coming in and making pretty big changes, and that’s what he gets to do.”

But so was the fourth quarter, with the first 4,200 job cuts.

Pandit, who assumed CEO duties in December, said the company’s financial results “reflect the continuation of the unprecedented market and credit environment and its impact on our historical risk positions.”

Despite Citigroup’s loss, its stock rose more than 6% by mid-morning trading today (Friday).

Financials’ Earnings

Citigroup’s earnings cap a week that’s seen many of the nation’s biggest financial firms post mixed, though fairly cathartic, results.

On Thursday, Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) posted its third consecutive quarterly loss – $1.96 billion, or $2.19 a share – and announced 3,000 job-cuts.

On Wednesday, JPMorgan & Chase Co. (JPM) reported profit of $2.37 billion (or 68 cents a share), more than a 50% drop from $4.79 billion (or $1.34 a share) from a year earlier.

On Monday, Wachovia Corp. (WB) beat estimates with a first-quarter loss of $350 million. Washington Mutual Inc. (WM), however, reported a $1.1 billion loss.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) will release its earnings Monday, and expectations are low.

“Our expectation is for the economic environment to continue to be weak and for the capital markets to remain under stress,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday.

Financial stocks were among the big winners after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Switzerland’s UBS AG issued new stock to help bolster their balance sheets. With that upbeat news and a fresh quarter ahead of them, investors appear quite willing to make some bets that the worst of the damage from the nation’s credit struggles has been felt. Moreover, the moves buttressed the view that financial services companies are taking aggressive action to improve their capital bases and stave off the potential of a collapse similar to Bear Stearns Cos. Analysts believe there must be a recovery in bank and brokerage stocks to lead major stock indexes higher. Some of the biggest financial players had their biggest moves of the year Tuesday — Citigroup Inc. shot up 10 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 7 percent, and Lehman surged 11 percent.

Read on at Yahoo! Finance.