Merrill Lynch on Thursday posted a first quarter loss, after taking several billion dollars of writedowns for subprime mortgages and other risky assets.
The following is reaction from industry analysts and other experts:
"It was my view that management was going to throw everything into this quarter. I would expect this is a clean-the-cupboards kind of report, including anything that John Thain could put into a quarter that was already going to be ugly. But the news from here should get brighter."
"Thain is really smart. As soon as he got his name on the door, he went out to the sovereign wealth funds. He's already raised a chunk of capital. He wanted to raise more, preemptively, than he needed. Now he's addressing the accounting issues."
--Michael Holland of Holland & Co told Reuters