"For Barclays, the current cautiously positive view of the company is likely to strengthen after the statement, with followers of the stock looking to recapture some of the 26% loss in the share price over the last six months," said Richard Hunter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, the Associated Press reported.

Another analyst agreed:

"They came in better than the market expected,'' Mamoun Tazi, an analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd. in London told Bloomberg News. Tazi rates Barclays a Buy.

Barclays' announcement comes on the heals of Bear Stearns' (NYSE: BSC) $1.2 billion subprime write-down, announced earlier this week, which also was below Wall Street's 'damage estimate,' and following comments from at least one head of a bank and several analysts suggesting that the worst of the subprime / subprime asset-backed default issue may be over. Losses tied to subprime defaults were a major factor in the resignation of CEOs from both Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER).

To date, banks and securities firms worldwide have announced more than $40 billion in losses for collateralized debt obligations and other debt forms backed by subprime mortgages. The initial wave of losses and discovery of conditions in the subprime market sparked a global equity sell-off in August 2007 and concerns about a global credit crunch. The markets have since stabilized with improved liquidity, in part due to the aforementioned lower-than-expected subprime loss announcements by the companies involved, and due to efforts by central bank officials in the United States, Europe and Asia to provide liquidity to ensure to the proper function of the markets.