Stocks Meandered On Wall Street With Regional Banks In Focus

Barry Adams
17 Apr, 2023
New York City

Benchmark indexes lacked direction as investors reviewed the latest batch of earnings including regional banks. 

Market averages trimmed gains on Friday following weaker-than-expected retail sales in March but the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 index advanced in four of the last five weeks. 

With earnings from large banks out of the way, investors are looking ahead to results from more banks and large brokerage houses this week. 

Medical services, pharmaceutical makers and semiconductor companies extended gains of the last three weeks ahead of earnings. 

Moreover, broader markets have been making advances with more up days then down days in the last 30 trading days. 

M&T Bank offered a glimmer of hope in the ravaged regional banking sector after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in the March quarter. 

Critically watched, total deposits at the end of March quarter fell less than 3% to $159.1 billion from $163.5 billion at the end of the December quarter. 

Investors have been looking for signs of deposit outflows at regional banks, which could signal if the bank is likely to face a capital crisis.  

With earnings in focus, investors placed worries linked to the Fed's rate hike at the next meeting in early May and looked for clues about the drivers of corporate earnings and how businesses are handling elevated inflammation levels and weakening consumer demand.  

 

Indexes & Yields 

The S&P 500 index fell 0.3% to 4,126.66 and the Nasdaq Composite index eased 0.3% to 12,082.52. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes increased 26 basis points to 4.19%, 10-year Treasury notes rose 11 basis points to 3.59% and 30-year Treasury bonds rose 3.81%. 

Crude oil fell $1.93 to $80.56 a barrel and natural gas prices rose 14 cents $2.25 a thermal unit. 

 

Stock Movers 

Alphabet Inc fell 3.2% to $105.41 after The New York Times reported that Samsung is considering to switching default Google search engine on its mobile devices to Microsoft's Bing. 

The report said about $3 billion revenue may be at stake and Google's parent Alphabet was surprised to learn about the discussions between Microsoft and Samsung. 

Charles Schwab Corporation increased 2.3% to $51.95 after the online stock broker and financial services provider reported better-than-expected earnings in its latest quarter. 

State Street Corp fell 11.% to $71.24 after the company reported weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings. 

Roblox Corp fell 11.6% to 40.38 after the online  gaming company said its revenue or average bookings per daily user to decline from a year ago in March.  

Daily active users increased 26% to 66.2 million from a year ago and estimated bookings were between $247 million and $255 million, an increase between 23% and 27% from a year ago. 

However, Roblox said estimated average bookings per daily active user were between $3.73 and $3.85, which represents a change between -2% and 1% from a year ago.