New York: Wall Street stocks were flat early Friday following a mixed batch of US banking earnings that weighed on financial shares.
About 45 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 24,942.32, up 0.1 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 had slipped 0.1 percent to 2,796.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was up a hair from Thursday’s record close at 7,825.72.
Financial shares were the big laggard among sectors after JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo reported results, an unofficial kickoff to the second-quarter period.
JPMorgan reported an 18.3 percent rise in second-quarter earnings to $8.3 billion behind a solid performance in key divisions in results that easily topped analyst expectations.
At the other extreme was Wells Fargo, which suffered an 11.4 percent drop in profits to $5.2 billion and had declines in overall deposits and loans.
Shares of all three banks fell, with Wells Fargo plunging 3.3 percent, JPMorgan 0.3 percent and Citigroup 2.9 percent.
Jack Ablin of Cresset Wealth Advisors said the JPMorgan’s results were good but the market was disappointed with the other two companies.
“Investors are maybe looking at them collectively,” Ablin said. “The sector is not growing as quickly as investors hoped.”
AFP