Today was really about watching the oil ticker and seeing crude break down under the $124.00 mark. OPEC's president said in the right circumstances that oil could go back under $80.00. Median home prices fell almost 16% in May. The US's failed trade talks with China at the W.T.O. hardly mattered. It even looked like people on Wall Street were in a good mood today as the dollar hit a monthly high. After a near $3.00 drop to under $122.00 you have to wonder.... Can gasoline hit $3 again this year?

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA 11,395.12 (+264.04)
S&P500 1262. 94 (+28.57)
NASDAQ 2319.62 (+55.40)
10-YR T-NOTE 4.044% (+0.026%)
52-WEEK LOWS
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) saw another gain of 2% to $31.45 in the final minutes after yesterday's earnings gains. But the key to today's move besides the market was massive stock options trading.

News that financial services giant Citigroup (NYSE: C) is selling shares of common stock to raise capital is disturbing. According to a report in Bloomberg: "The company announced plans to sell $3 billion of stock to increase capital depleted by writedowns on subprime-related mortgages and bonds."

To dilute investors even more is just plain "Chutzpah." Shareholders over the last year or so have already lost more than 50% on their City shares; there has got to be a better way for the company to increase capital. Instead of diluting investors why not try and unlock some value for shareholders? It's not like the company has no assets. It could spin off the credit cards division, separate domestic and global consumer banking, spin off the capital markets division, and so on. It could generate a lot more than a measly $3 billion, and actually make shareholders happy!

Commenting on the move, as reported by Bloomberg, "Super Analyst" Meredith Whitney, who basically has been correct each step of the way as the banking crisis has worsened, said, "The fact that the company raised such a small amount of capital at this time confounds us. We believe Citi needs to raise an additional $10-$15 billion or sell several hundreds of billions worth of assets in order to truly shore up its capital position.''

It's time for Citi to be broken up, so that investors can finally reap some rewards.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 4/30/08

TimesOnline reports that Meredith Whitney, a CIBC analyst, has received death threats. Whitney who is married to the former World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) champion Death Mask, downgraded Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) on Thursday -- citing its need to raise a $30 billion capital cushion. Her "underperform" rating of Citigroup helped send its shares down 7% -- leading her to receive several death threats from Citigroup investors.

Whitney married the wrestler Death Mask, also known as John Charles Layfield, 2½ years ago after they met on a TV set. Layfield credits Whitney with helping to make him more sophisticated -- he noted: "She took a country boy like me and kind of refined me. I know what fork to use now at the dinner table, and I drink my beer from a glass." This has not stopped the brave Whitney from earning rave reviews as an analyst -- Forbes ranked her second-best stock picker for 2007.

In a free society, people should be able to express their opinions without fear of bodily harm. For those Citigroup investors who don't like what she wrote, you should be happy that her downgrade may have helped push Citigroup's board to replace Chuck Prince. It remains to be seen whether Prince's replacement can do a better job of boosting its share price.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup stock and has no financial interest in WWE.