Citigroup stockholders are breathing a sigh of relief today.

The beleaguered bank this morning announced it made a first-quarter net income of $1.6 billion – the first time it has turned a profit in 1.5 years. That number may not seem like much, but compared to the $5.11 billion loss it reported this time last year, it’s great. Citi’s revenue was $24.8 billion – up a whopping 99 percent.

Shares rose 50 cents, or 12.5 percent, to $4.51 in trading before the market opened – a superb sign for a company that has had a pretty dismal performance on Wall Street lately and that has been bailed out by the federal government three times. But Citi — and the rest of the banking sector — isn’t out of the mud yet.

"We’ve seen good trading results from JPMorgan, from Goldman Sachs and now from Citi," Gary Townsend, CEO of Hill-Townsend Capital LLC told Bloomberg. "There is a question about sustainability, but it’s clearly a good sign for the sector.”"

Meanwhile, General Electric’s profits dropped 35 percent this quarter – but that’s less expected and it was enough to give GE stock a boost in early-morning trading. Demand for energy equipment and jet engines seems to have balanced out big losses in real-estate and rising consumer-credit defaults at GE Capital. Stocks overseas surged on this news, and upon hearing good news from the likes of Toshiba, Barclays and UBS.

Let’s hope these moves into the black continue!