William Tanona nearly doubled his estimate of losses at Citi, Merrill, and JP Morgan. His new estimate for losses at Citigroup in the fourth quarter is near $18.7 billion, for Merrill Lynch is $11.5 billion, and for JP Morgan of $1.7 billion.

JP Morgan Chase (JPM: chart) fell 45 cents to $44.50, Citigroup (C: chart) fell 71 cents to $29.75, and Wachovia Bank (WB: chart) dropped 57 cents to $38.50.

Tanona also hinted that Citigroup may need another capital infusion between $5 billion and $10 billion and may have to cut its dividend by 40%.

5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo-Housing starts fell to 27% in November.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 shed 0.57% or 88.85 to 15,564.69, while the broader Topix Index plunged 8.53 to 1,499.94.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 6.9 billion shares valued at 723 billion yen were traded and in the in the second section 284 million shares worth 4.8 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 56 gained, 158 declined, and 11 were unchanged. Clarion Company Limited led advancers with a rise of 5.15% followed by Tokyu Corporation firming 3.63%.

Construction companies gained as Japan’s shipments of construction equipment rose 10.4% in November. Komatsu Limited jumped 1.65% and Hitachi Zosen soared 1.29%.

Crude oil prices rose 2% to $95.97 per barrel yesterday. Inpex rose 0.81% as a result.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transported reported today that housing starts for new condominiums and new homes fell to 84,252 in November, 27% decline from a year ago, and 35% from October.

New dwellings started for owned and rented properties slumped 7.6% to 26,604 and 23.4% at 38,859 respectively.

New buildings for collective housing fell 63.9% to 8,331, while detached houses retreated 14.9% to 10,054.

The Land Ministry further stated that building construction starts for public investors slumped 45.3% to 377 and private investors slipped 19.2% to 12,440. Land dwellings plunged 26.7% to 7,337 units, with non-dwellings falling 9.6% at 5,439.

Building construction for mining tumbled 66.2% in November to 53 and manufacturing declined 22.4% to 983. However, wholesale and retail constructions rose 75.3% at 2,141, while real estate climbed 25.3% to 211.

Separately, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said today total construction orders from the 50 big domestic contractors declined 3.8% from a year earlier to 915.5 billion yen.

Japan’s Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association reported today that shipments of construction equipment rose 10.4% to 219 billion yen in November buoyed by rising demand in Russia, China and Southeast Asia.

CEMA further revealed domestic shipments climbed 4.3% to 86.4 billion yen and exports rising 14.8% to 132.7 billion yen.

Japan’s Automobile Association said today the country’s twelve largest manufacturers built in November 1.07 million cars, mini-cars, trucks and buses, an increase of 3.8% from a year ago. Exports rose 8.1% to 600,422.

The yen soared 0.06% from 114.27 to 114.25 at the close of trade.

Of the Nikkei 225 index shares Clarion Company Limited led gainers with a rise of 5.15% followed by gains in Tokyu Corporation of 3.64%, in NEC Corporation of 2.98%, in Japan Airlines of 2.66%, and Sumitomo Chemical Company of 2.56%.