Are Wall Street Banks Ready to Risk Again?

Return to corporate bonds among likely signs crisis is easing

By Jim O'Neill

Posted Apr 28, 2008 9:48 AM CDT

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Are Wall Street Banks Ready to Risk Again? — Merrill Lynch, which has taken $30 billion in write-downs, sold $2.55 billion of preferred shares last week, atop a total $12.8 billion it sold in December and January. (AP Photo/Brian McDermott, file)

Wary investors appear to be returning to Wall Street, the Journal reports, buying back into higher-risk debt issues from the likes of troubled Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. “Risk taking has come back in the market,” said one expert.

Banks still are reluctant to trade short-term debt, and there’s plenty still hanging over brokerages. "We still have some tough times ahead," says one credit strategist—pointing to a housing market that might not yet have hit bottom in an uncertain economy. (More Citigroup stories.)

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