But wait, didn't CNBC tell us that the worst was behind us? Golly, they may have been wrong. My whole world is in turmoil! I wanted to believe CNBC and thought I could believe them, but no, they led me down the garden path yet again. How will I ever recover from this loss of confidence with the Wall Street lapdogs? Sniffle, sniffle, sniffle.
UBS posted the biggest ever annual loss for a Swiss firm on Tuesday, but said client withdrawals reversed in January and it will axe 2,000 more jobs as it restructures to focus on wealth management.Hooray! All is better now! We're saved! We're saved! Bring on the Champagne and buy, buy, buy.
UBS reported a 8.1 billion Swiss franc ($7 billion) net loss in the fourth quarter, missing a Reuters poll forecast for 7.1 billion. UBS's loss for 2008 came in at 19.7 billion Swiss francs, above analysts' predictions for 18.7 billion francs.
The quarterly loss came on the back of a hefty 8.8 billion Swiss franc trading loss, as well as charges it made after selling billions in toxic assets to the Swiss National Bank when it was rescued by the state in October.
Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told journalists that the world's biggest wealth manager was not paying a 2008 dividend but still aims to return to profit in 2009 after seeing some positive signs at the start of the year.
"While we leave a bad year behind us... we can nevertheless report substantial progress," Rohner said.
