Some analysts who follow the company said its announcement implied a 50 percent improvement in fourth-quarter income from operations over the period a year earlier.

The bank said that the charge was a factor in a 14 percent decline in fourth-quarter income.

The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.88 a share, well below last year's $2.47 a share and the $2.45-a-share range most analysts had expected.

Indeed, the company showed a 7.6 percent gain yesterday in fourth-quarter net income.

Exxon reported that fourth-quarter net income fell 43.1 percent, to $785 million, or 61 cents a share.

Excluding those items, fourth-quarter net income would have been $106.7 million, up 23.9 percent from $86.1 million in the period a year earlier.

Merck gained 6 1/2, to 144, after it said fourth-quarter net income rose 13 percent on sales of five new drugs.

As a result, it will reduce fourth-quarter net income by $650 million.

Citicorp said the nearly two years' worth of Brazilian interest payments added $436 million to its fourth-quarter income.

The company said the write-down reduced after-tax fourth-quarter income by $693 million, or $1.32 a share.