Wall St. closes mixed after disappointing bank results; JPMorgan tumbles 6%



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Wall St. closes mixed after disappointing bank results; JPMorgan tumbles 6%

On Friday, all three key indices of Wall St. had closed out the session in an ambivalent tenure with financial stocks heaving trade-sensitive Dow lower, as large US lenders’ fourth quarter earnings had fallen far short of investors’ anticipation.

In point of fact, a swathe of major stock indices in the Wall Street had opened up the session in a hesitant note, though, Nasdaq and S&P 500 had pared losses in late-afternoon trading and managed to eke out intra-session gains.

Nonetheless, the consumer discretionary sub-index of S&P 500 had been a big drag throughout the day, as economic data released earlier in the day had unveiled a decline in US retail sales alongside a downward spiral in US consumer sentiment, as Omicron wave appears to be taking a greater than anticipated toll on investors’ morale with US demographics seemed to have become a breeding ground for the newly identified pandemic.

If truth is to be spoken, health experts across the globe had suggested that the newly identified pandemic variant would result in “mild” symptoms with a lower risk of hospitalization, while only the US had been experiencing a surge in ICU admission, pointing fingers on underlying risk factors and an uncontrolled lifestyle that a lion’s share of Americans appeared to be nurturing.

Apart from a blistering upsurge in Omicron variant, heavy-weight Wall St. lenders had led the decline with JPMorgan tumbling as much as 6 per cent following disappointing fourth-quarter result, while Citibank shed 1.3 per cent.

Besides, Wells Fargo gained 3.7 per cent after shelving large-scale gains over Q4, 2021 that ended on December 31. Alongside bleaker-than-anticipated economic data, a weekend profit-taking wave ahead of a public holiday in Monday, had added to further holocaust.

US capital markets will be closed on Monday in honour of Martin Luther King Jr.

Wall St. ends mixed as financials drag Dow down

Citing statistics, in the day’s Wall St. round-off, trade-sensitive Dow dwindled 0.56 per cent to 35,911.81 and benchmark S&P 500 edged 0.08 per cent higher to 4,662.85, while tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.59 per cent to 14,893.75.

Over the week, Dow lost 0.73 per cen to 35,911.81 and S&P 500 edged 0.16 per cent higher to 4,662.85, while tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.96 per cent to 14,893.75. Meanwhile, addressing to uncertainties over the US Fed’s timeline about a plausible rate-hike, a managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Michael James said, “The bar was very high going into (JPMorgan) results. On the surface it was good but, under the hood, not so much”.

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