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Michael Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, joins ‘Closing Bell Overtime’ to discuss testifying in front of congress, the regional banking sector, and more.
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Michael Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, joins ‘Closing Bell Overtime’ to discuss testifying in front of congress, the regional banking sector, and more.
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The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Progress on U.S. debt ceiling talks and a sign of health at one regional bank gave markets the confidence to rally Wednesday.
Progress on U.S. debt ceiling talks and a sign of health at one regional bank gave markets the confidence to rally Wednesday.
U.S. leaders from both sides of the political spectrum expressed hope that the country will avert a sovereign debt crisis, which could come in as little as two weeks, if U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning of a June 1 deadline comes true. Though neither Biden nor McCarthy offered concrete details on a deal, their comments were markedly more positive than those on Monday, when McCarthy told NBC News both sides are still “far apart.”
Adding to yesterday’s positive sentiment, regional bank Western Alliance reported that customer deposits have grown by more than $2 billion throughout the current quarter. Analysts and investors cheered the news. Shares of the bank jumped 10.2% and helped to lift the sector. PacWest, another regional bank, surged 21.7%, while the broader SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) rose 7.4%.
Technology stocks rallied yesterday, possibly because of diminishing fears of a debt crisis and positive sentiment from Tesla, which climbed 4.4% after the company’s shareholder meeting. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rose 1.2%, hitting a 52-week high for the third straight day.
Major stock indexes benefited from those rises. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.24% higher, the Nasdaq Composite added 1.28% and the S&P 500 rose 1.19%.
But the S&P might be too reliant on tech stocks, Mizuho warned. Simply put, without Big Tech stocks, the S&P 500 would be down for the year. That implies that if Big Tech experiences a downturn — as it did last year — then the S&P would tumble pretty quickly.
Still, the future is bright for now. Goldman Sachs’ Senior Strategist Ben Snider told CNBC AI could increase the profits of S&P companies by 30% — with technology sector being the immediate winner. Fears averted for another day.
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The south facade of the White House in Washington DC, United States on April 21, 2022.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Progress on U.S. debt ceiling talks and a sign of health at one regional bank gave markets the confidence to rally Wednesday.
Progress on U.S. debt ceiling talks and a sign of health at one regional bank gave markets the confidence to rally Wednesday.
U.S. leaders from both sides of the political spectrum expressed hope that the country will avert a sovereign debt crisis, which could come in as little as two weeks, if U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning of a June 1 deadline comes true. Though neither Biden nor McCarthy offered concrete details on a deal, their comments were markedly more positive than those on Monday, when McCarthy told NBC News both sides are still “far apart.”
Adding to yesterday’s positive sentiment, regional bank Western Alliance reported that customer deposits have grown by more than $2 billion throughout the current quarter. Analysts and investors cheered the news. Shares of the bank jumped 10.2% and helped to lift the sector. PacWest, another regional bank, surged 21.7%, while the broader SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) rose 7.4%.
Technology stocks rallied yesterday, possibly because of diminishing fears of a debt crisis and positive sentiment from Tesla, which climbed 4.4% after the company’s shareholder meeting. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rose 1.2%, hitting a 52-week high for the third straight day.
Major stock indexes benefited from those rises. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.24% higher, the Nasdaq Composite added 1.28% and the S&P 500 rose 1.19%.
But the S&P might be too reliant on tech stocks, Mizuho warned. Simply put, without Big Tech stocks, the S&P 500 would be down for the year. That implies that if Big Tech experiences a downturn — as it did last year — then the S&P would tumble pretty quickly.
As Mizuho’s note put it, “For our sake, hope [Big Tech companies] hold.”
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Karen Firestone, Joe Terranova, and Steve Weiss joins ‘Halftime Report’ to discuss regional bank volatility, range-bound trading, and Western Alliance’s deposit growth.
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Karen Firestone, Joe Terranova, and Steve Weiss join ‘Halftime Report’ to discuss regional bank volatility, range-bound trading, and Western Alliance’s deposit growth.
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A pedestrian walks past a Pacific Western Bank branch in Beverly Hills, California on May 4, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Upbeat economic data couldn’t overcome the resistance stocks faced from disappointing corporate performance and persistent banking fears.
Upbeat economic data couldn’t overcome the resistance stocks faced from disappointing corporate performance and persistent banking fears.
First, the promising news (at least when it comes to inflation). April’s wholesale prices in the U.S. rose 0.2% for the month, less than the Dow Jones estimate of 0.3%. That translates to a 2.3% year-over-year increase, down from March’s 2.7% and the lowest since January 2021. In another sign inflation might be coming under control, initial jobless claims increased by 22,000 to 264,000 for the week ended May 6, according to the Department of Labor. That’s the highest reading since Oct. 30, 2021.
But that news didn’t shield markets from other fears. “Investor focus is now on both the economic backdrop and liquidity and what’s going on versus rates and inflation,” said Dylan Kremer, co-chief investment officer of Certuity.
And liquidity — or, in other words, the health of banks and their willingness or ability to make loans — was in focus again Thursday. PacWest shares tumbled, along with other regional banks like Zions Bancorp, which lost 4.5%, and KeyCorp, which fell 2.5%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF slid 2.5% Thursday.
Another big loser on Thursday was Disney, which sank 8.7% after the media giant reported it had lost subscribers from its Disney+ streaming service. That’s the largest one-day fall, in percentage terms, since Nov. 9, when the company slumped 13%.
Disney’s shares dragged down both the S&P 500, which declined 0.17%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slid 0.66%. However, the Nasdaq Composite managed to add 0.18%. The tech-heavy index was boosted by a 4.3% jump in Alphabet shares, which are trading at their highest level since August, thanks to investors’ optimism around the artificial intelligence products the tech giant announced at its annual developers conference.
After a heavy week of economic data releases, investor focus will turn to the looming debt ceiling in the U.S. Unease over a potential sovereign default has already spread through markets. For instance, yields for short-term T-bills have jumped sharply this month. Still, most economists and bankers — including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — expect the U.S. to avoid defaulting. If they’re proven wrong, the results could, in Dimon’s words, be “potentially catastrophic.”
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In an aerial view, a Pacific Western Bank building is seen on May 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
David Mcnew | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Upbeat economic data couldn’t overcome the resistance stocks faced from disappointing corporate performance and persistent banking fears.
Upbeat economic data couldn’t overcome the resistance stocks faced from disappointing corporate performance and persistent banking fears.
First, the promising news (at least when it comes to inflation). April’s wholesale prices in the U.S. rose 0.2% for the month, less than the Dow Jones estimate of 0.3%. That translates to a 2.3% year-over-year increase, down from March’s 2.7% and the lowest since January 2021. In another sign inflation might be coming under control, initial jobless claims increased by 22,000 to 264,000 for the week ended May 6, according to the Department of Labor. That’s the highest reading since Oct. 30, 2021.
But that news didn’t shield markets from other fears. “Investor focus is now on both the economic backdrop and liquidity and what’s going on versus rates and inflation,” said Dylan Kremer, co-chief investment officer of Certuity.
And liquidity — or, in other words, the health of banks and their willingness or ability to make loans — was in focus again Thursday. PacWest shares tumbled, along with other regional banks like Zions Bancorp, which lost 4.5%, and KeyCorp, which fell 2.5%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF slid 2.5% Thursday.
Another big loser on Thursday was Disney, which sank 8.7% after the media giant reported it had lost subscribers from its Disney+ streaming service. That’s the largest one-day fall, in percentage terms, since Nov. 9, when the company slumped 13%.
Disney’s shares dragged down both the S&P 500, which declined 0.17%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slid 0.66%. However, the Nasdaq Composite managed to add 0.18%. The tech-heavy index was boosted by a 4.3% jump in Alphabet shares, which are trading at their highest level since August, thanks to investors’ optimism around the artificial intelligence products the tech giant announced at its annual developers conference.
After a heavy week of economic data releases, investor focus will turn to the looming debt ceiling in the U.S. Unease over a potential sovereign default has already spread through markets. For instance, yields for short-term T-bills have jumped sharply this month. Still, most economists and bankers — including JPMorgan CEO Dimon — expect the U.S. to avoid defaulting. It’s hard to imagine what would happen if they were proved wrong.
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KBW’s Large Cap Bank Analyst David Konrad joins ‘Fast Money’ to discuss the state of the regional banking sector, what’s ahead for banks, and more.
06:35
Thu, May 11 20235:39 PM EDT
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A Pacific Western Bank sign is seen on May 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
David Mcnew | Getty Images
Shares of PacWest were under pressure once again Thursday after the struggling regional bank said that deposit outflows resumed in the first week of May.
The stock dropped 22.7%, further extending its recent declines. PacWest’s shares have now fallen more than 50% this month and nearly 80% for the year.
PacWest’s stock was under pressure again on Thursday.
The bank said in a securities filing Thursday that its deposits declined 9.5% during the week of May 5. PacWest said that the majority of those outflows came after media reports that said the lender was exploring strategic options.
The bank also said that it was able to fund those withdrawals with available liquidity. PacWest said it now has $15 billion of available liquidity compared with $5.2 billion in uninsured deposits.
The update marks a change from May 4, when PacWest said that it was not experiencing “out-of-the-ordinary deposit flows” and that total deposits had increased since the end of March.
During the first quarter, PacWest’s total deposits declined 16.9%, and the bank said it would use strategic asset sales to reshape its balance sheet.
Several Wall Street analysts theorized that the most recent outflows were from PacWest’s venture capital customers.
“While the deposit news is not what the company wants to report, if the outflows are truly from the venture depositors and not the core bank, that is better news, despite the higher total outflow disclosure. The financial result is that the company is borrowing more to replace those deposits,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Jon Arfstrom said in a note to clients.
Following PacWest’s filing, Western Alliance released its own update and said that total deposits have grown by $600 million since May 2. Shares of that bank were down less than 1% on Thursday. Elsewhere, shares of Zions Bancorp dipped 4.5% and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) was down 2.4%.
The regional banking sector has been under pressure since early March, when concern about the impact of higher interest rates led to a run on deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, which was seized by regulators. Signature Bank soon followed, and then First Republic was seized and sold to JPMorgan before the market opened on May 1.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg News on Thursday that he thinks regional banks are “quite strong” but added “I think we have to assume there’ll be a little bit more” to the crisis.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
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A ‘Now Hiring’ sign posted outside of a restaurant looking to hire workers on May 05, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Investors liked April’s jobs growth.
A strong jobs reading, a note from JPMorgan and an optimistic earnings report from Apple buoyed U.S. markets Friday.
The gains made by stocks were impressive — especially after the previous few days of renewed banking fears — so let’s start with them. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.65%, the S&P 500 rose 1.85% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.25%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq’s jump is straightforward: Apple shares leaped 4.7% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue Thursday. Other Big Tech companies, like Microsoft and Amazon, rose alongside Apple.
Broader markets were boosted by April’s jobs report, which showed a higher-than-expected increase in jobs growth and an unemployment rate of 3.4% — a record low since 1969.
Markets’ reaction might seem confusing at first. A tight labor market implies the Federal Reserve might continue raising interest rates. Generally speaking, that’s bad for markets. Recall January’s jobs report: There were 517,000 new jobs in December, almost three times the forecast. Markets fell on the news.
Yet this time, markets rallied, suggesting that the worry gripping traders is one of recession, not inflation. A strong jobs market increases the probability that the U.S. economy can tame inflation without contracting too severely.
Indeed, there are signs the U.S. economy has been slowing. At the end of April, we learned that GDP rose at an annualized 1.1% pace in the first quarter, about half of what analysts had estimated. The banking crisis — resurrected by First Republic’s failure — is spreading again, causing banks to lend less and ultimately slow growth even further.
There’s good news on that front, however. On Friday, banking titan JPMorgan Chase upgraded three regional bank stocks to “overweight,” saying that Western Alliance, Zions Bancorp and Comerica were all “substantially mispriced” — as I had argued in Friday’s edition of this newsletter.
Investors digested the note and pushed the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) up 6.3%. Individual bank stocks saw more drastic jumps: PacWest surged 81.7% and Western Alliance popped 49.2%.
But make no mistake: This isn’t a sign that banking fears have been put to rest definitively. If stocks can swing so drastically in one direction on the back of a note, they can do so in the other at the faintest whisper of trouble. What we’re seeing isn’t renewed confidence, but continued volatility.
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A ‘Now Hiring’ sign posted outside of a restaurant looking to hire workers on May 05, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Investors like jobs growth.
A strong jobs reading, a note from JPMorgan and an optimistic earnings report from Apple buoyed U.S. markets Friday.
The gains made by stocks were impressive — especially after the previous few days of renewed banking fears — so let’s start with them. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.65%, the S&P 500 rose 1.85% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.25%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq’s jump is straightforward: Apple shares leaped 4.7% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue Thursday. Other Big Tech companies, like Microsoft and Amazon, rose alongside Apple.
Broader markets were boosted by April’s jobs report, which showed a higher-than-expected increase in jobs growth and an unemployment rate of 3.4% — a record low since 1969.
Markets’ reaction might seem confusing at first. A tight labor market implies the Federal Reserve might continue raising interest rates. Generally speaking, that’s bad for markets. Recall January’s jobs report: There were 517,000 new jobs in December, almost three times the forecast. Markets fell on the news.
Yet this time, markets rallied, suggesting that the worry gripping traders is one of recession, not inflation. A strong jobs market increases the probability that the U.S. economy can tame inflation without contracting too severely.
Indeed, there are signs the U.S. economy has been slowing. At the end of April, we learned that GDP rose at an annualized 1.1% pace in the first quarter, about half of what analysts had estimated. The banking crisis — resurrected by First Republic’s failure — is spreading again, causing banks to lend less and ultimately slow growth even further.
There’s good news on that front, however. On Friday, banking titan JPMorgan Chase upgraded three regional bank stocks to “overweight,” saying that Western Alliance, Zions Bancorp and Comerica were all “substantially mispriced” — as I had argued in Friday’s edition of this newsletter.
Investors digested the note and pushed the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) up 6.3%. Individual bank stocks saw more drastic jumps: PacWest surged 81.7% and Western Alliance popped 49.2%.
But make no mistake: This isn’t a sign that banking fears have been put to rest definitively. If stocks can swing so drastically in one direction on the back of a note, they can do so in the other at the faintest whisper of trouble. What we’re seeing isn’t renewed confidence, but continued volatility.
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), May 3, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
PacWest’s stock was rebounding on Friday.
However, Friday’s rally made only a small dent in the week-to-date losses. PacWest still finished the week down 43% and below its closing level from Wednesday. The bank confirmed this week that it is exploring strategic options.
Western Alliance, which said it is not seeking a sale, has also been under heavy pressure this week, falling 27% even after Friday’s rally. The KRE finished the week down about 10%.
The steep declines, which came even at banks that reported much smaller deposit outflows than First Republic, led Wall Street analysts to warn that the stocks have become detached from their fundamentals.
“We are arguably reaching a point of hysteria,” Fundstrat strategist Tom Lee said in a note to clients on Friday.
Analysts at JPMorgan Chase upgraded Western Alliance, Zions and Comerica to overweight on Friday, saying the bank stocks “appear substantially mispriced to us.”
This week’s slide came after First Republic was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase before the market opened on Monday. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, among others, have said this week that they think the stage of banking crisis caused by deposit outflows is largely over, but the fall for the stocks shows investors are less confident.
Many on Wall Street are looking to Washington for regulatory changes to calm the banking system, such as potentially expanding deposit insurance rules. Some have raised the possibility of temporarily banning short-selling on bank stocks. Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair told CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Thursday that some of the share price declines are likely being driven by short-selling.
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A Pacific Western Bank branch in Los Angeles, California, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
U.S. regional banks continued falling Thursday even though their deposits have been increasing.
Fears of fragility in the U.S. banking sector are spreading.
Regional bank stocks continued tumbling Thursday; shares of PacWest and Western Alliance were halted more than once. The SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (KRE) fell 5.5%. At one point on Thursday, every stock in the KRE traded lower as investors sold off regional banks.
It’s not just investors who are worried about banks’ health. Consumers — many of whom do not trade stocks — share the same sentiment. A Gallup survey found that half of respondents polled were “very worried” or “moderately worried” about the safety of their bank deposits — a proportion last seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
Against such a backdrop — and fresh off a quarter percentage point rate hike by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday — markets, unsurprisingly, didn’t do well. The Dow slid 0.86%, the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq fell 0.49%. That’s the fourth consecutive day all major indexes fell.
But some analysts and bankers think the tumult is caused by fear more than analysis. (Though this is not to argue against the idea markets are, largely, driven by psychology.)
Evercore ISI’s John Pancari, for instance, wrote the advisory firm is confident about the “liquidity and capital levels at banks post 1Q.” Indeed, PacWest said its deposits grew $1.8 billion from March 20 to April 24; Western Alliance also reported that its deposits have increased since the end of March.
But Pancari warned bank valuations could still collapse because of a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” where investors, fearing the collapse of banks, actually trigger the process as they flee.
Or, as Peter McGratty, head of U.S. bank research at KBW, put it, “We’re in this situation that feels a lot like March, where we’re trading stocks on fear … not fundamentals.” And that’s particularly scary today, when SVB’s failure in March showed how fears can spread near instantly on social media and cause a bank to collapse in merely 36 hours.
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A “For Lease” sign at a Pacific Western Bank branch in Los Angeles, California, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
U.S. regional banks continued falling Thursday even though their deposits have been increasing.
Fears of fragility in the U.S. banking sector are spreading.
Regional bank stocks continued tumbling Thursday; shares of PacWest and Western Alliance were halted more than once. The SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (KRE) fell 5.5%. At one point on Thursday, every stock in the KRE traded lower as investors sold off regional banks.
It’s not just investors who are worried about banks’ health. Consumers — many of whom do not trade stocks — share the same sentiment. A Gallup survey found that half of respondents polled were “very worried” or “moderately worried” about the safety of their bank deposits — a proportion last seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
Against such a backdrop — and fresh off a quarter percentage point rate hike by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday — markets, unsurprisingly, didn’t do well. The Dow slid 0.86%, the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq fell 0.49%. That’s the fourth consecutive day all major indexes fell.
But some analysts and bankers think the tumult is caused by fear more than analysis. (Though this is not to argue against the idea markets are, largely, driven by psychology.)
Evercore ISI’s John Pancari, for instance, wrote the advisory firm is confident about the “liquidity and capital levels at banks post 1Q.” Indeed, PacWest said its deposits grew $1.8 billion from March 20 to April 24; Western Alliance also reported that its deposits have increased since the end of March.
But Pancari warned bank valuations could still collapse because of a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” where investors, fearing the collapse of banks, actually trigger the process as they flee.
Or, as Peter McGratty, head of U.S. bank research at KBW, put it, “We’re in this situation that feels a lot like March, where we’re trading stocks on fear … not fundamentals.” And that’s particularly scary today, when SVB’s failure in March showed how fears can spread near instantly on social media and cause a bank to collapse in merely 36 hours.
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A Pacific Western Bank branch in Los Angeles, California, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Regional bank stocks fell sharply Tuesday as the fallout from the third major bank failure this year continued to put pressure on the sector.
Shares of PacWest fell nearly 28% on Tuesday and was on track for its fourth-straight negative session. The stock was halted for volatility multiple times.
PacWest’s stock fell again on Tuesday.
The California-based bank was not the only regional lender under pressure. Shares of Western Alliance dropped 15%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) sank 6.3%.
The steep declines deepened losses in the sector from Monday. Over the weekend, regulators seized troubled regional bank First Republic and sold it to JPMorgan Chase.
First Republic is the third failure of a large regional bank this year, following Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.
The reasons for Tuesday’s declines were not immediately clear. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that the initial phase of the regional bank crisis was “over,” and there was cautious optimism among Wall Street analysts that the deposit flight issues had been contained.
First Republic reported a decline in deposits of about 40% during the first quarter, raising questions about how the bank could survive on its own.
Most other regional banks reported smaller deposits declines, however, and some, such as PacWest, reported that deposits began rebounding in late March.
The recent bank failures and expected regulatory changes in response to them have also raised questions about the long-term profit outlooks for mid-sized regional banks.
“We believe that banks with assets >$500B and <$60B are the clearest winners in the new world order, while there is likely to be a no-man’s land between $80-120B, as banks in this range may need to shrink to avoid new regulations or more actively engage in M&A to increase scale and absorb regulatory costs,” KBW analyst David Konrad said in a note to clients Sunday.
Another issue for the regional banks is the possibility of more Fed rate hikes. Higher rates will make it more costly for the banks to hold on to their deposits while also lowering the market value of the long-dated bonds and loans on their books.
Concern about the market value of those assets was one of the sparks for the initial run on Silicon Valley Bank in March.
The central bank is expected to raise its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage points Wednesday.
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