Merrill Lynch & Company, the world's largest brokerage, on Thursday posted a quarterly loss of $2 billion said it planned to cut nearly 3,000 jobs after recording over $9.5 billion in write-downs and losses on subprime mortgages and other risky assets. It marked the third consecutive quarterly loss for Merrill Lynch amid the global credit crisis that started last summer. Banks and brokerages have accumulated nearly $200 billion of write-downs so far, with more feared to come. Chief executive John Thain, hired four months ago to return the firm to profitability, warned that conditions were unlikely to improve in the next couple of quarters. Merrill Lynch lost about $12 billion during the first quarter and now has totaled about $29 billion in write-downs of risky asset-backed securities and leveraged loans. “This was about as difficult a quarter as I've seen in my 30 years on Wall Street,” Thain told analysts during a conference telephone call. “We are planning for a slower and more difficult next couple of months and probably next couple of quarters, but are also hopeful for our full-year 2008 results.” Thain is increasing the investment bank's business in emerging markets and cutting costs to help offset the massive write-downs. Merrill Lynch lost $2.14 billion in the first quarter, compared to a profit of $2.11 billion in the first quarter of 2007. Total revenue fell to $2.93 billion from $9.6 billion a year ago. The quarterly loss was bigger than expected.
