NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 15:45 ET — Market closed.
- Citigroup shares last closed down 0.4% at $116.69 in the year’s final session.
- Citi flagged a roughly $1.2 billion pre-tax loss tied to selling its remaining Russia unit.
- Next up: ISM data next week, then key U.S. inflation and jobs reports and Citi’s Q4 earnings.
Citigroup shares ended the year’s final session modestly lower as investors weighed an accounting hit tied to the bank’s planned exit from Russia. The stock last closed down 0.4% at $116.69 on Wednesday, with U.S. markets shut on Thursday for the New Year’s Day holiday.
In a filing, Citi said its board approved the sale of its Russian unit, AO Citibank, to Renaissance Capital and expects a pre-tax loss of about $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter. The bank said the hit is largely a currency translation adjustment — losses created when ruble results are converted into dollars — and will remain in accumulated other comprehensive income, a line within shareholders’ equity, until the transaction closes in the first half of 2026. Citi said it will classify the remaining Russia operations as “held for sale” and expects the transaction to be capital neutral to its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a key regulatory capital yardstick. SEC+1
The timing matters because banks are heading into earnings season, when investors tend to look through non-core items and focus on capital, costs and the pace of restructuring. For Citi, the Russia exit removes a lingering geopolitical overhang, but it also sets up a headline drag in fourth-quarter reported profit.
Citi fell 0.8% on Dec. 30, the first session after the disclosure, as investors marked the expected loss against near-term earnings. “We believe investors will look past it as a non-core item,” Piper Sandler analyst R. Scott Siefers wrote. Reuters
That framing is common in bank-land: traders often strip out one-off charges when they assess underlying earnings power. Still, big headline items can influence sentiment when the sector is trading on confidence about buybacks, dividend capacity and the direction of rates.
The broader market also finished 2025 on a soft note. The S&P 500 fell 0.74% on Dec. 31 as thin holiday trading amplified profit-taking into the close.
Large U.S. financials were broadly lower in the final session. JPMorgan slipped 0.3%, Bank of America fell 0.5% and Wells Fargo dropped 1.2%, while Goldman Sachs eased 0.6% and Morgan Stanley fell 0.9%, according to market data.
Rates remain the big swing factor for bank stocks. A steeper yield curve — the gap between short- and long-term Treasury yields — typically helps lenders by widening lending spreads, while a flatter curve can compress them.
Before the next session, traders will be watching early-January data that can move rate expectations. The ISM manufacturing index is due Jan. 5, followed by ISM services on Jan. 7.
The U.S. employment report for December is scheduled for Jan. 9 and the consumer price index report for December is set for Jan. 13, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ release calendar shows. The Federal Reserve’s 2026 meeting calendar lists its next policy meeting on Jan. 27-28.
Citi is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Jan. 14 at about 8 a.m. ET and hold its investor call around 11 a.m. ET, the bank said. Investors will be looking for any read-through from the Russia exit to capital returns and for updates on the pace of Citi’s broader clean-up.
On the chart, traders are watching whether the stock holds the $116 area, near Wednesday’s session low, and whether it can reclaim $118, around Tuesday’s high. Those levels can act as support and resistance — price points where buying or selling has tended to show up.
