Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2023. Portal/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire License Rights
- JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup rise after beating third-quarter profits
- S&P 500 and Dow expect weekly gains
- U Mich’s preliminary consumer sentiment index is at 63 versus 67.2 estimated
- Indices mixed: Dow up 0.28%, S&P down 0.26%, Nasdaq down 0.97%
Oct 13 (Portal) – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell on Friday as a decline in mega-cap stocks overshadowed upbeat quarterly earnings from some of the biggest U.S. banks.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and Citigroup (CN) rose between 2.5% and 3.4% after their quarterly profits beat analysts’ estimates thanks to higher interest rates.
The S&P 500 Banks Index (.SPXBK) rose 1.9% to hit a three-week high intraday.
Megacaps including Apple (AAPL.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Tesla (TSLA.O), Nvidia (NVDA.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O) slipped between 0.9% down and 2.3%.
A preliminary reading of U.S. consumer sentiment, which posted a sharp decline in October, also put pressure on stocks.
Meanwhile, safe-haven U.S. Treasury bonds rallied on Friday as investors kept an eye on developments in the Middle East conflict, which has rattled markets since the start of the week.
Other traditional safe-haven assets such as gold also traded higher.
Countries have urged Israel to shelve plans for a full-scale attack on the northern Gaza Strip, where more than a million civilians largely defied orders to evacuate before pursuing Hamas militants who slaughtered Israelis a week ago.
“The tragic events currently unfolding in the Middle East can be ignored (current market trends) because if we see an escalation there, there is a chance for another rally in risk-free assets,” said Niall O’ Sullivan, Chief Investment Officer Multi-Asset Strategies EMEA at Neuberger Berman.
Patrick Harker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said he believes the central bank is likely finished with its rate-hiking cycle as price pressures ease.
At 12:21 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 95.34 points, or 0.28%, to 33,726.48, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) fell 11.34 points, or 0.26% 4,338.27 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) fell 131.31 points or 0.97% to 13,442.91.
The energy sector (.SPNY) saw crude oil prices rise more than 3%, leading gains among major S&P 500 sectors. It was also poised to become the top weekly performer.
The S&P 500 and Dow sought weekly gains despite recent weakness.
Among stocks, asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N) fell 1.1% after posting a sharp decline in net inflows in the third quarter.
UnitedHealth (UNH.N) rose 2.2% after beating third-quarter profit estimates.
Dollar General (DG.N) rose 10.2% after the discount retailer brought back former CEO Todd Vasos to replace Chief Executive Jeffery Owen.
Boeing (BA.N) fell 3.1% after the planemaker and Spirit AeroSystems (SPR.N) expanded the scope of their ongoing inspections of a production defect on 737 Max 8 planes. Spirit shares fell 1.2%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers, with a ratio of 1.17 to 1 on the NYSE and a ratio of 1.49 to 1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 11 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 25 new highs and 252 new lows.
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta, Anil D’Silva and Shinjini Ganguli
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