(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's quarterly profit beat Wall Street estimates as the third-largest U.S. bank cut expenses and benefited from an improved economy and more active capital markets after a dismal end to 2011.

Profit was also boosted by loan growth in the lender's core Citicorp division, strong fixed income performance, and continued improvement in credit quality that allowed Citigroup to release reserves set aside for bad loans.

  They continue to progress. They have headwinds that maybe only Bank of America has, but they seem to be managing those headwinds," said Gary Townsend, CEO of Hill-Townsend Capital. " It's a good quarter without being as superlative as JPMorgan's was."

JPMorgan Chase & Co beat Wall Street's expectations on Friday, helped by some of the same macro trends - a better economy and more active capital markets.

The results confirm investor expectations of a recovery after the European debt crisis roiled markets late last year, and they augur well for other major banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp, all due to report results this week....//

buy fast, sell fast... more good news coming....to be double-confirmed by this week....