Citigroup Profit Falls 11 Percent on Weak Trading

(REUTERS) -- Citigroup Inc fourth-quarter profit fell 11 percent and missed Wall Street estimates as the European debt crisis battered capital markets trading and discouraged clients from doing deals.

The third-largest U.S. bank by assets reported net income of $1.16 billion, or 38 cents per share, down from $1.31 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected 49 cents a share, according to surveys by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Citigroup stock dropped 3 percent in premarket trading after the results.

Citi said securities and banking revenue fell 29 percent from the year-earlier quarter, excluding the accounting impact of changes in the value of Citi debt.

The profit drop came in spite of an improvement in the cost for bad loans, which fell nearly $2 billion, or 41 percent, to $2.9 billion.

(Reporting by David Henry in New York; editing by John Wallace)