Financial Shares Tumble After Weak Jobs Report; BAC Down Over 4%
June 01 2012 - 10:50AM
Dow Jones News
Friday's weak jobs report sent financial stocks tumbling in
early trading, pushing the broader market lower and diminishing
hopes that the rally in the sector earlier this year could be
restarted after a dismal May.
The subindex of financial stocks within the Standard &
Poor's 1500 fell 2.77% while the KBW Bank Index of 24 large bank
stocks fell 3.54%, a five month low. The S&P 500 index was down
1.89%.
Bank of America shares fell 4.22%, to $7.04, while Morgan
Stanley fell 4.13%, to $12.81. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell 3.2%
to $92.64, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. fell 2.89%, to $32.19.
Citigroup shares fell 3.58%, to $25.56.
With an intraday low of $12.80, Morgan Stanley hit a low last
seen about eight months ago. J.P. Morgan's early Friday skid to
$32.05 was last hit late last December and Goldman's $92.35 was a
nearly six-month low.
Regional banks also took the brunt of the selloff. Shares of
Huntington Bancshares Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, fell 6.19%, to $6.14;
shares of Comerica Inc. in Dallas fell 3.29%, to $29.44; BB&T
Corp. in Winston-Salem, N.C. fell 4.17%, to $28.95; and U.S.
Bancorp in Minneapolis fell 3.7%, to $29.96.
Regional bank stocks are particularly sensitive to any hint of a
slowdown in loan growth and merger activity.
Bank stocks have been rallying this year, with the KBW bank
stock index up 7.75% year-to-date despite Friday's losses, compared
with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is now flat for the
year. The outperformance of bank stocks so far this year "has hit
an air pocket," said Gerard Cassidy, a bank stock analyst with RBC
Capital Markets. "We're going to need to see a resurgence in the
economy to drive bank stocks higher from here."
The Labor Department issued a disappointing jobs report for the
third straight month, with nonfarm payrolls growing 69,000 in May,
the smallest gain in a year and below forecasts for 155,000. Job
gains for March and April were also revised lower. The unemployment
rate was 8.2%, up one-tenth of a percentage point, the first
increase in nearly a year.
Concerns about Europe also continued to weigh heavily on the
financial sector. Shares of Deutsche Bank AG fell 6.67% in morning
trading, to $33.58, while shares of Credit Suisse fell 1.52%, to
$18.84, and shares of UBS AG fell 1.76%, to $11.18.
European stocks were already down before the U.S. jobs report.
The number of people out of work in the euro zone increased in
April to the highest number since the introduction of the common
currency.
-By Liz Moyer and Corrie Driebusch, Dow Jones Newswires;
212-416-2512; liz.moyer@dowjones.com; Twitter: @lizmoyer
--Chris Dieterich contributed to this article.
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