Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Wall Street bank that cut 3,200 jobs last week, identified six equity analysts fired by the firm, including William Tanona, who covered companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Deane Dray, who followed General Electric Co.

Charles Chon, Ajay Kejriwal, Lawrence Keusch and Peter Wahlstrom also left, according to a note the New York-based firm sent to clients. The companies they covered are being dropped, suspended or reassigned. Goldman announced the departure of seven other analysts in a Nov. 5 note.

``Goldman has always been the best, and when the best of the breed starts to weaken, it's not a good sign for any of them,'' said Joseph Saluzzi, the co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, New Jersey. ``Research was kind of a loss leader. If you're not making money on the trading side, you can't support the research.''

Goldman shed about 10 percent of its workforce last week as analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS AG estimated it may post its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999. Bank and brokerages worldwide have eliminated about 150,000 jobs since the subprime mortgage market collapsed last year.

Goldman dropped coverage for 20 stocks, including Agilent Technologies Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp., and suspended research on 23 others, such as JPMorgan and Citigroup Inc., pending their reassignment. Analyst Terry Darling, who already worked on Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co., began to follow 15 previously assigned to his former colleagues, from Honeywell International Inc. to United Technologies Corp.

Equity Investments

Goldman, which employed 32,569 people as of Aug. 29, may report a loss as it's forced to write down the value of equity stakes, Merrill analysts said. The firm is expected to earn $1.33 a share, based on the average estimate of 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Most major global stock indexes have dropped more than 25 percent this year, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index down 37 percent. The International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook forecast last month that global growth will weaken to 3 percent in 2009, from 3.9 percent this year and 5 percent in 2007.

The U.S. jobless rate rose to the highest level since 1994 last month and payrolls dropped by 240,000 workers, signaling the economic slump may last well into next year.

Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, has disclosed plans in the past year to eliminate 22,000 jobs, resulting in expenses of about $2.1 billion.

Goldman, once the biggest U.S. securities firm, converted into a commercial bank in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 10, 2008 13:19 EST