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Sell Block: Goldman's Bank Hit List

Published: Thursday, 19 Jun 2008 | 7:02 PM ET

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By: Tom Brennan
Web Editor, Mad Money

On Tuesday, June 17, Goldman Sachs put out what Cramer called a "hit list" of the banks most desperately in need of financing.

Of course, that means stock offerings will ensue, further devaluing these already-troubled names.

Just in case you're wondering how accurate the list is, take note: Fifth Third Bancorp [FITB Loading... () ] was on an earlier version released June 12. Sure enough, this week the bank set in motion a preferred stock offering worth $1 billion and cut its dividend. FITB shares have dropped 23% since the Tuesday announcement.

Goldman listed four key factors that would send these banks scrambling for cash:

-Their credit losses won't peak until 2009
-Raising money is going to get harder (Who wants to pour money into a bank that already raised capital and still went lower?)
-Estimate cuts will hurt these stocks
-The potential for the Fed to raise interest rates is putting the yield curve at risk

So who did Goldman say to avoid? Bank of America [BAC Loading... () ], Citigroup [C Loading... () ], Comerica [CMA Loading... () ], East West Bancorp [EWBC Loading... () ], First Horizon [FHN Loading... () ], Huntington Bancshares [HBAN Loading... () ], Keycorp [KEY Loading... () ], Marshall & Ilsley [MI Loading... () ], National City [NCC Loading... () ] and Popular [BPOP Loading... () ].

Cramer added Wachovia [WB Loading... () ] and Washington Mutual [WM Loading... () ] to the list. Both were on that earlier list of troubled banks that Goldman put out on June 12.

The environment for these banks is much like the savings and loan debacle of the 1990 -- only Cramer thinks it could be worse. For that reason, don't go anywhere near these banks if your goal's to make money rather than lose it.

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Sell Block: Goldman's Bank Hit List