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Merrill Lynch misses estimates

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. posted its third-straight quarterly loss and will cut about 3,000 jobs after at least $6.5 billion of writedowns and a 40 percent drop in investment-banking fees.

The first-quarter net loss of $1.96 billion, or $2.19 a share, compared with earnings of $2.16 billion, or $2.26, a year earlier, the third-biggest U.S. securities firm by market value said today in a statement. Analysts had estimated a loss of $1.72 billion, based on the average of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg.