Flooding The Market

Two stories today demonstrate that timing in the stock market is everything.

First, analyst Dick Bove says Citigroup's a buy.

Bove changed his recommendation for the stock to a "buy," saying the sale of the Treasury Department's stake was already priced in.

Until now, Bove had advised investors to wait for the unwinding of the government's 7.7 billion shares before buying the stock.

"I think the mathematics work out that (the government) probably can get rid of the stock without shaking the market too much," Bove told "Squawk Box."

Second, the Treasury does plan to sell all 7.7 billion shares this year.

The U.S. Treasury Department today announced its plan to sell the government’s 7.7 billion common shares in Citigroup Inc. this year. 

“Treasury intends to sell its Citigroup common shares into the market through various means in an orderly and measured fashion,” the Treasury said in a statement in Washington today. “The manner, amount and timing of the sales under the plan is dependent upon a number of factors.”

Morgan Stanley is advising the Treasury on the sale, the department said. The disposition will be “subject to market conditions” and spread out “over the course of 2010,” the department said. 

No offense there Dick, but when you put 7.7 billion of something on the market, the price of that something probably isn't going to go up, ya know?