Merrill Lynch & Co., stated on Thursday it would cut 4,000 jobs all because of a $6 billion write-downs.  With this huge loss it’s put them in for a loss for the first quarter.  The shares fell 74 cents to $44.15 in pre-market trading to $44.89.  It appears that thier results missed everyone’s projections.  This will but them at about a loss of $1.99 per share, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.  The stock is will down and out from where it was a year ago.  CEO John Thain also warned that things were unlikely to improve within the 2 quarters.