Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs has reversed itself on an analyst call last month which recommended that investors move back into financial and consumer stocks.

The Wall Street firm has now said in a note: 'We boosted our consumer discretionary and financial weights in May on the belief the sectors would benefit from bank recapitalization and fiscal stimulus. Our thesis was clearly wrong in hindsight'.

Reuters reports that Bank of America analyst Michael Hecht has come out and estimated that Merrill Lynch will writedown $3.5bn in the second-quarter, and that UBS will markdown some $7bn. He expects both firms to post losses in the period.

In the meantime, Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski estimates that Citi will writedown another $8bn in assets in the second-quarter, and has cut his second-quarter earnings estimates on JPMorgan Chase over concerns about the US 'consumer recession'.

Canada's National Post reports that Blackmont Capital analyst Brad Smith has said that CIBC may be forced to raise more capital as it will likely have to take a $1bn hit in the third-quarter on exposure to monoline counterparty XL Capital Assurance.

Bloomberg reports that Anglo Irish Bank has sued Mirabaud Securities, alleging that a London-based Mirabaud employee spread a false rumour that Merrill Lynch had withdrawn a $2bn credit line.

The New York Times reports that Huntsman has sued Apollo Management LP and partners Leon Black and Joshua Harris for $3bn, alleging that the pair were behind the decision of Hexion Specialty Chemicals' (owned by Apollo) to try and back out of a $6.54bn deal for Huntsman. According to the newspaper, Hexion and Apollo said in a lawsuit last week that Huntsman's current financial position would push the combined business into insolvency.

Finally, The Financial Times reports that US hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has disclosed that it holds a short position in HBOS of 3.29% in the bank's outstanding shares.

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