The US Treasury sells another big chuck of its Citigroup stock holding, this will bring its total inventory from down to 5.1 billion shares. This transaction will left the Treasury two thirds of its original holding of Citigroup’s common stock.

These shares were accumulated through converting the $25 billion investment from Troubled Asset Relief Program to Citigroup’s common stocks in 2009. The conversion let the government own about 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup’s common stock, and made the US Treasury the biggest shareholder of Citigroup.

During the latest transaction, the US government sold 1.1 billion shares of Citigroup. The average of the overall selling price is $4.03. At a cost of $3.25 per share, so far the government has made over $2 billion by bailing out this big, deep troubled bank.

“We are pleased that Treasury has profitably sold a third of its common shares in Citi, adding to the substantial return for taxpayers realized last year when we repaid the December 2008 TARP investment,” commented by the Citigroup spokesman.

Treasury assures the public that it will continue sell these shares to the public “in an orderly fashion” right after the blackout period of Citi’s second-quarter results. Treasury will also act on its other holdings of these troubled companies soon, such as General Motor and AIG.

The blackout period starts from this Thursday, and Citigorup is scheduled to report their second-quarter earnings on July 16.

Citi stocks were down 5% during the morning session on July 1 then came back, and now trading at $3.80 this morning.

In its decision today, the Federal Reserve will maintain current interest rates and expects to continue the current rate in the future. Due to high unemployment in the U.S. and turmoil in Europe, the fed decided to take a cautious approach.

The market had a mixed reaction to the lower interest rates, due in part to the weak housing market report and sell off in commodities. Although the Dow Jones was up several points, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped slightly.

The European debt crisis abroad has triggered less encouraging financial situations at home. However, the central bank remains optimistic about a steady recovery to the economy and U.S. labor markets, and as such, held the federal funds rate today.

Oil prices fell as well today, after news that crude supplies have unexpectedly been building. Coupled with the near zero interest rates reported by the fed, prices slipped. Crude futures dropped $1.50, while national average for gas prices actually rose nine tenths of a cent today.

The dollar fell against other major currencies amidst the news from the Fed; however, the rate decision is not the cause as the news was widely expected and the rates continue to hold near historic lows. The federal reserve reported its strategy to keep its key interest rate target under 0.25 percent.

Treasuries on the other hand, rallied in reaction to the Federal Reserve. This came as no surprise to analysts, who expected the Fed to make minimal changes to current rates until the economy beings recovery.

Adobe Systems, an American software company based in San Jose that is known for products like Creative Suite, had in increase in profits in the second fiscal quarter of this year. Their total profits for this quarter last year were $126.1 million, while their profits this year were $148.6 million, giving them a 18% total profit increase. Earnings per share have increased as well, from 24 cents per share to 28 cents per share.

By November 12, Adobe expects to have bought back $1.6 billion of their shares. The profits for this past quarter exceeded analyst expectations, and their gain in the current quarter is expected to increase as well. A return of 48 cents per share has been predicted.

Although Apple Inc. has banned Adobe’s multimedia Flash software from products like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad, Adobe’s Creative Suite continues to sell well. Consumer’s desire for Creative Suite 5 has played a large role in the 34% revenue growth posted by Adobe. Wall Street expected proceeds to increase from $704.7 million to $905.9 million, but instead they grew to $943 million.

Many customers refrained from upgrading their versions of Creative Suite when the last few were released. The previous version of the illustrating and graphic design program, Creative Suite 4, came out at the dawn of the financial crisis. However, the poor timing of previous releases seems to have only benefited the sales of the latest version.

In a statement, Adobe CEO and President Shantanu Narayen said the following: “Our growth is being fueled by the explosion of digital content across all media and devices.”

Adobe shares fell 2.3%, or 71 cents, in after hours trading. Shares had closed down 37 cents prior to the public release of these results.

Today, BP received a letter from the Attorney General of Florida demanding that BP place at least $2.5 billion into an escrow account. Any future claims by business and citizens made as a result of the oil spill will be covered by this account.

In the letter, Attorney General McCollum cited claims from an economist that suggests that Florida could see losses up to $2.2 billion, as well as decline in employment and industries as result of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Since the explosion on the offshore drilling rig on April 20, the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico has impacted a variety of industries in Florida, including tourism, restaurant, and fishing. According to the letter, all of these have seen serious losses.

Current estimates from the head of the U.S Geological Survey suggest that oil is leaking at a rate of 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day.

BP has paid over $53 million in 20,00 claims in its attempts to replace all “legitimate” lost income and wages as a result of the spill. 42,000 claims have been submitted as of Thursday, meaning over half have yet to be investigated. Attorney General McCollum wants BP to set aside a dedicated amount to pay damages to Florida citizens, as well as to acknowledge that the amount may grow in the future.

According to a statement released on Thursday, BP has said it will give the state $25 million in the State’s Area Contingency Plan, the third such grant to Florida this month.

The United States has seen its share of expensive times; with two wars going on in the Middle East, last year’s bailouts and stimulus, and of course, the tense results of a shaky economy. It has many people uneasy, including Congress, which may face backlash when voters go to the polls this fall. And that doesn’t include the federal government remaining accountable to Social Security and numerous other funds in its care.

Debt increases are widespread and the news isn’t good: net public debt is expected to be about $14 trillion in five years (that’s a 73 percent ratio to Gross Domestic Product); and both domestic and foreign investors, like China, will hold about $9.1 trillion in debt in 2010, a full $1.6 trillion over 2009.

And it’s not going unnoticed, even if it’s not widely broadcast. Congress received a report last week stating GDP, at 93 percent this year, will top 102 percent in five years. That’s dire news in contrast to predictions made by Carmen Reinhart, a University of Maryland professor, that said debt exceeding 90 percent of GDP could cause the economy to stagnate. Reinhart is part of the bipartisan fiscal commission tasked with ways to reduce debt by President Obama.

Republican Representative, Dave Camp, made the report public. At a time when finding jobs for Americans and reducing debt are both of utmost importance, the revelation hits hard, “The president’s economic experts say a 1 percent increase in GDP can create almost 1 million jobs, and that 1 percent is what experts think we are losing because of the debt’s massive drag on our economy.”