MER Q4 08 Lost $15.3 bil

Significant negative fourth-quarter items for Merrill Lynch include: •Credit valuation adjustments related to monoline financial guarantor exposures of $3.22 billion. •Goodwill impairments of $2.31 billion. •Leveraged loan writedowns of $1.92 billion. •$1.16 billion in the U.S. Bank Investment Securities Portfolio writedowns. •Commercial real estate writedowns of $1.13 billion.