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Wall Street Dips Amidst Bank Stocks Rally as Rate Hike Expectations Firm

Picture Source: Internet

Wall Street ended in the red on Friday as mixed economic data and the potential for another Federal Reserve interest rate hike dampened investors. Despite this, all three major US stock indexes closed the week with gains. The previous day’s rally caused some investors to reconsider and assess the situation.

The big US banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, and Wells Fargo & Co beat earnings expectations, with rising interest rates and a reduction in banking system stress being the main factors. The S&P 500 banking sector saw a 3.5% jump, while JPMorgan Chase’s share surged by 7.6%.

However, despite the positive earnings news, the slew of mixed economic data caused concern among investors. Retail sales, industrial production, and consumer sentiment data led to an expectation that the Fed would increase interest rates by another 25 basis points during next month’s policy meeting.

At the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.42%, the S&P 500 decreased by 0.21%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 0.35%. The S&P 500’s financials enjoyed the biggest percentage jump among other sectors, advancing by 1.1%, while the real estate sector experienced the most significant decline.

Boeing Co halted some 737 MAX deliveries due to a supplier quality issue attributed to Spirit AeroSystems leading to a slide of 5.6% in the shares. Shares of Lucid Group Inc fell 6.3% following a. disappointing first-quarter production and delivery numbers. Meanwhile, BlackRock Inc rose 3.1% after the world’s largest asset manager beat quarterly profit expectations.

First-quarter earnings season will hit full stride next week, with results expected from high-profile companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp, Netflix Inc, and many regional banks and industrials. Analysts predict that S&P 500 earnings have fallen by 4.8% from a year ago, reversing the 1.4% year-on-year gain seen at the beginning of the quarter.

A total of 9.98 billion shares were traded on the US exchanges, compared with the 11.31 billion average over the last 20 trading days. The S&P 500 recorded 11 new 52-week highs and two new 52-week lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new 52-week highs and 205 new 52-week lows.

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