Stock fell on Wednesday as pressure on the financial sector increased with shares of Credit Suisse, a Swiss Bank that has large U.S. and global operations, tumbling more than 25%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Averagefell 525 points, or 1.6%, while theNasdaq Compositelost 1.4%. The 1.8% slide inS&P 500 futuresput the broad index's 2.1% year-to-date gain at risk.
In recent days, a crisis in the financial sector has centered around regional banks as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed, both casualties of poor management in the face of eight interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in the last 12 months. Wednesday morning attention turned to the big banks with shares of Credit Suissehitting an all-time low.
Saudi National Bank, Credit Suisse’s largest investor, said Wednesday it could not provide any more funding, according to a Reuters report. This comes after the Swiss lender said earlier this weekit had found“certain material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting” for the years 2021 and 2022.
U.S.-traded shares ofCredit Suissedropped more than 27% in the premarket.
As Credit Suissedragged down the European Bank sector, U.S. big bank shares declined in sympathy.CitigroupandWells Fargoshed nearly 5% each, whileGoldman SachsandBank of Americafell around 3% and 4%, respectively.The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF)lost 3.4% in premarket trading, giving up its 2% pop on Tuesday.
Regional banks, which rebounded Tuesday to lift sentiment for the broader market, fell back into the red again. TheSPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE)was down 4.6% in the premarket, led by losses inOld National Bancorp,Zions BancorpandFifth Third Bancorp. Despite clinging to gains earlier in extended trading,First Republic Banktumbled 22%.
Peter Boockvar of Bleakley Financial Group said pressure on the financial sector was growing broadly because the bank failures have changed the mindset of the industry.
“What this is telling us is there’s the potential for just a large credit extension contraction that banks are going to embark on [to] focus more on firming up balance sheets and rather than focus on lending,” Boockvar said to CNBC’s“Squawk Box.”
“It’s a balance sheet rethink that the market’s have” Boockvar added, citing that many banks may have bought longer maturity bonds that have reduced in value since the Fed started raising rates. “Also you have to wonder with a lot of these banks if they’re going to have to start going out and raising equity.”
The producer price indexposted an unexpected declineof 0.1% in February from the prior month, cooling despite economists polled by Dow Jones estimating a 0.3% increase from January. Retail sales also fell 0.4% in February from January, in line with economists expectations.
Comments