U.S. stocks started off the week with a sour sentiment after federal banking regulators took aggressive actions to stem the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) declined 1.1% Monday morning, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dipped 0.3%. Contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 1%.
Bond yields plunged. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note dipped to 3.48% Monday morning, while on the front end of the yield curve, two-year yields dropped to 4.17%.
U.S. stocks got smoked on Friday, rounding out their worst week so far this year. Federal regulators closed tech-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank in the biggest U.S. bank failure since the financial crisis in 2008.
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday morning regarding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Biden said that “no losses will be borne by the taxpayers” and he assured customers that they would be protected.
His remarks came after regulators took extraordinary action Sunday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg announced that depositors of the failed Silicon Valley Bank would be able to access all their money starting Monday.
The saga of Silicon Valley Bank has had a rippling effect into a second bank: Signature Bank (SBNY) was closed Sunday, the second bank failure in three days. Among the measures, the Fed said depositors would be made whole. It created a new “Bank Term Funding Program” (BTFP) facility that enables other banks to obtain quick cash in exchange for collateral.
“Today’s Fed/Treasury decision to make all Silicon Valley Bank depositors whole is a good first step to reinstilling market confidence,” Nicholas Colas, Co-founder of DataTrek Research, wrote in a statement.
“Even still, we now know that the Fed’s stress test scenarios (which assume very low Treasury rates in a crisis) are inadequate in the current environment. Also, both interest rate and economic/corporate earnings uncertainty remains,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the UK, British officials worked throughout the weekend to find a buyer for the U.K. subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank, with HSBC stepping in.
The turmoil on the banking front overshadowed February’s job report, which blew past expectations once again, as the U.S. economy added 311,000 jobs, a slower pace from January’s blowout number, and compared to consensus estimates from economists for job gains of 225,000. The unemployment rate edged up to 3.6%, and wage growth rose 4.6% over the last year, slower than expected.
Economic releases will dominate the conversation this week as Wall Street pays attention to two data prints as the next Federal Reserve’s meeting rapidly approaches. At the same time, investors will be glued to the latest headlines over the collapse of SVB Financial Group and the implications for the banking sector.
Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) kicks off the action in data on Tuesday. Economists expect inflation to rise 6% over the last year on a headline basis, while on a “core” basis the call is for 5.5%.
Meanwhile, February’s retail sales read rolls out Wednesday morning. The upshot in the reading of those reports will weigh in on the Fed’s next policy move.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs (GS) said it “no longer expects” the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates later this month amid the SVB failure.
The sour bank sentiment has spread across markets, as the KBW Bank index (^BKX) fell 12% Monday morning, while index members including Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) all traded down.
Other regional bank stocks including First Republic Bank (FRC) plummeted more than 60% after JP Morgan lent the bank a hand. The California-based bank secured funding from the Wall Street giant that gives it more than $70 billion in unused liquidity. Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL) plunged down more than 70%.
PacWest Bancorp (PACW), Zions Bancorporation (ZION), First Republic Bank (FRC), Regions Financial (RF) stock has been halted on Monday, triggered by volatility.
In other single-stock moves, Roku (ROKU) fell 8% after the company said that SVB held 26% of its cash and cash equivalents, per its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Shares in the Swiss lender Credit Suisse (CS) hit a new record low Monday morning on the fears of the European banks ability hang onto deposits amid the collapse of US lender SVB.
On the earnings front, FedEx (FDX), Adobe (ADBE), Dollar General (DG), and Lennar (LEN) will report quarterly results this week.
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Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @daniromerotv
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