Stocks fell Friday as investors pulled back from positions in First Republic and other bank shares amid lingering concerns over the state of the U.S. banking sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384.57 points, or 1.19%, to close at 31,861.98 points. The S&P 500 slid 1.10% to end at 3,916.64 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.74% to 11,630.51 points.
First Republic slid nearly 33% to end the week down close to 72%. That marked a turn from Thursday's relief bounce, which came when a group of banks said it would aid First Republic with $30 billion in deposits as a sign of confidence in the banking system. Friday's nosedive weighed on the SPDR Regional Banking ETF (KRE), which lost 6% in the session and finished the week 14% lower.
U.S.-listed shares of Credit Suisse closed down nearly 7% as traders parsed through the bank's announcement that it would borrow up to $50 billion francs, or nearly $54 billion, from the Swiss National Bank. The stock lost 24% over the course of the week.
Despite the down session, the S&P 500 advanced 1.43% this week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 4.41% as investors bet on technology and other growth names ahead of next week's Federal Reserve policy meeting. It was the best week since Jan. 13 for the tech-heavy index. But Friday's slide pulled the Dow into negative territory for the week, finishing 0.15% down.
Bank stocks have been closely followed by investors in recent days amid fears that others could face the same fate as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which were both closed within the last week. The market has been responding to the latest developments in the sector after regulators said over the weekend that they would backstop deposits in the two banks.
Investors pulled back on Friday ahead of what could potentially be an eventful weekend as the bank crisis plays out, said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.
"There's nervousness into the weekend of: How does this all look on Monday?," he said. "The market is nervous about holding stocks into that."
The shakeup arrives at a time when investors are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's upcoming meeting on March 21-22. The question on the minds of traders is whether the central bank will proceed with an expected 25 basis point hike even as banking woes whiplash the market.
"The Fed seems to be paying lip service, at least, and being aware of what just happened with the banking sector," said Aoifinn Devitt, chief investment officer at Moneta. "In a way, nothing about the base case has changed, only for the fact that we've had this kind of event in the banking sector causing contagion in terms of sentiment, but not yet really contagion in terms of other banks."
Stocks ended Friday's session lower.
The Dow was down 1.2%, while the S&P 500 ended 1.1% lower. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.7%.
Despite the down session, the Dow was the only of the major indexes to close the week down. While the 30-stock index saw a weekly loss of 0.2%, the S&P 500 advanced 1.4% for the week and the Nasdaq Composite gained 4.4%.
— Alex Harring
First Republic Bank took another leg lower in afternoon trading, plunging more than 30% as investors positioned themselves in the final hour of trading this week. Friday's nosedive has brought the stock down more than 70% from where it started the week.
The drop has also weighed on the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE), which was down 6% on Friday and poised for a weekly loss of more than 14%.
— Alex Harring
Plans to funnel $30 billion worth of deposits into First Republic should restore confidence in the U.S. financial system, while mitigate the likelihood of future bank runs,
"We view the move by the industry as a positive step to stem contagion amid the regional bank crisis," wrote Evercore ISI's John Pancari in a Thursday note. "We believe the move sends a message of broader stability for the sector and should help further temper depositor fears," and enables the "bank to fight another day."
Read more on how analysts view the latest rescue plan here.
— Samantha Subin
The Dow notched a new low for the session as investors readied for the final hour of the trading day and week.
At one point shortly before 3 p.m. ET, the 30-stock index traded more than 500 points down. It's the only of the three major indexes on track for a weekly loss in what has been a volatile five sessions amid the bank crisis.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were down 1.2% and 0.8% entering the final hour, respectively. They are on track for weekly gains of 1.3% and 4.3%, respectively.
— Alex Harring
Crypto services firm Coinbase saw its shares jump 10% on Friday afternoon, pulling its weekly gain up to almost 40%.
The move followed a Bloomberg report that the company is exploring an overseas trading venue as regulatory scrutiny of crypto businesses ramps up in the U.S.
Shares have also gotten a boost this week from the rally in bitcoin, which continued its climb from earlier in the week. Although Coinbase has been working to diversify its revenue streams, fees from trading activity account for much of its revenue, and activity tends to pop when the bitcoin price rises.
— Tanaya Macheel
Charles Schwab said Friday its clients brought in approximately $16.5 billion in core net new assets over the past five trading days through Thursday.
The Westlake, Texas-based financial company saw its shares swing wildly this week amid fears that the banking crisis brought on by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is spreading.
Shares are down 4.5% for the week. CEO Walt Bettinger as well as a slew of directors at Schwab scooped up shares of the company this week in what may prove a vote of confidence.
— Yun Li
The Federal Reserve's decision on whether to raise interest rates by 25 basis points or implement no rate hike at next week's policy meeting could depend on what happens in the coming days, said Nick Timiraos, chief economics correspondent at The Wall Street Journal.
The Fed is expected to approve a quarter-point, or 25 basis point, hike to interest rates at its meeting next week. But market observers say the central bank's next decision on interest rates has been made less certain over the past week amid the bank crisis.
"I'm hearing the same thing everybody else is hearing, which is that there's a case to be made for going by 25 and there's a case to be made for skipping," he said on CNBC's "The Exchange." "I think it really depends ... on what happens with the state of the markets and this financial instability risk over the next few days."
— Alex Harring
Bumble's stock gained 4.5% after Citi initiated coverage of the dating app stock with a buy rating.
"Most importantly to us is that the core Bumble app has seen continued share gain within the online dating world, and recent product launches are leading to better conversion of paid users as well," wrote analyst Ygal Arounian.
Read more on the call from Citi here.
— Samantha Subin
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Warner Bros Discovery — The media company gained 2% after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight. The firm said it liked the company's debt reduction efforts.
FedEx — The shipping company saw its stock jump over 8% after the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings topped analysts expectations.
Sarepta Therapeutics — The pharmaceutical name dropped nearly 20% after regulators said it will hold an advisory committee meeting for its SRP-9001 treatment for Duchene muscular dystrophy.
Bumble – Shares of the dating app jumped 3% after Citi initiated coverage of the company with a buy rating, and said the stock could rally more than 20% as it captures market share.
— Yun Li
Financial stocks have been the talk of Wall Street this week as investors have attempted to position themselves amid the banking crisis. But within the S&P 500, they aren't the worst performing stocks this week.
With a few hours left in the trading week, energy stocks within the broad index are down nearly 7% on the week. That's the biggest drop of any of the index's 11 sectors. Halliburton, Devon Energy and Schlumberger NV have all weighed on the sector with week-to-date losses of 12%.
Financials have performed the second worst over the course of the week, down 5.8%.
In all, just four of the index's 11 sectors are on pace to post losses this week. The S&P 500 as a whole, meanwhile, is slated for a gain of around 1.5% for the week.
On the other hand, communication services is poised for the best weekly performance despite trading down in Friday's session. The move comes as investors bet that technology and other growth stocks could benefit if the banking crisis pushes the Federal Reserve to avoid a 50 basis point interest rate hike. Growth stocks are typically expected to perform better with lower interest rates.
Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta have led the sector up this week, with advances of more than 12% and 10%, respectively.
— Alex Harring
Bank of America analysts said recent banking sector volatility could be bad news for the auto industry. It expects banks to tighten lending standards, which will make it harder for consumers to drive off in a new car. The firm was expecting auto sales this year to be in the range of 14.2 million, or a 4% gain from 2022. However, if a credit crunch develops that forecast is at risk.
"Auto loans performance is slightly better than pre-pandemic, but credit quality differs between prime and non-prime borrowers, and non-prime delinquencies are 20% above pre-pandemic levels," they wrote, adding that banks will tighten underwriting standards as loan demand falls.
At the moment, the financing units of the major auto companies have access to the debt markets, but higher rates could mean weaker cash fow and earnings ahead, they said.
—Christina Cheddar Berk
Retail investors bought financial stocks in unpresented amounts over the past week, ending Wednesday, according to Vanda Research.
The banking sector's slump in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's failure, along with concerns over Credit Suisse's financials, had retail investors turning to "traditional 'to-big-to-fail' banks," Vanda Research's senior vice president, Mario Iachini, wrote in a note Thursday.
They have experienced "a surge in retail investors' purchases of their stock as fears of more bank failures are hitting smaller, regional banks hard," he added.
To see what banks retail investors are buying — and how much— read the full CNBC Pro story here.
— Michelle Fox
Shares of Warner Bros Discovery gained 2% after Wells Fargo upgrades shares to overweight, citing increased confidence in its debt reduction efforts.
"We've stress tested the downside and expect WBD to succeed in deleveraging, and at a modest multiple that's what should create the equity upside," wrote analyst Steven Cahall in a Friday note.
Read more on the upgrade from the Wall Street firm here.
— Samantha Subin
Some Big Tech names rose on Friday, bucking the broader market downtrend as a drop in regional bank stocks spooked investors on Wall Street.
Some of those outperformers included Alphabet and Microsoft, last up more than 1% each. Nvidia also gained 1% on the back of an upgrade to overweight by Morgan Stanley even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 0.9%.
Some investors have turned to Big Tech stocks in recent days, viewing the sector as a potential safe haven as they bet the crisis hitting the banking sector could stop the Federal Reserve from hiking rates next week, and in turn benefit growth names.
So far this week, Alphabet and Microsoft have gained more than 12% each, while Nvidia's surged 13%. Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Tesla have risen between 3% and 8% this week despite falling during Friday's session.
— Samantha Subin
Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS, said on CNBC the market has jumped between extremes over the course of the week as investors switched between feeling oversold and overbought. He said it's important investors stay vigilant of unnecessary agitations to the market and advised them to "be careful" during Friday's trading session.
"Today's a good day to be careful," Cashin said on "Squawk on the Street." "Friday before a weekend, financial rumors around, so you ... have to be careful to avoid rumor mongers."
— Alex Harring
These are some of the stocks hitting new lows during Friday trading:
Some stocks, however, bucked the broader market downtrend. These names notched new highs:
— Samantha Subin, Chris Hayes
Friday's drop to the Dow has pulled the index into negative territory for the week.
After shedding more than 400 points at its low, the Dow's week-to-date return moved from slightly above the flatline to down more than 0.1%.
Despite the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also sliding in Friday morning trading, the two indexes are still up around 1.6% and 4.5% for the week.
— Alex Harring
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to 63.4 in March, from 67 last month as inflation expectations remained elevated.
"Year-ahead inflation expectations receded from 4.1% in February to 3.8%, the lowest reading since April 2021, but remain well above the 2.3-3.0% range seen in the two years prior to the pandemic," noted Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu. "With ongoing turbulence in the financial sector and uncertainty over the Fed's possible policy response, inflation expectations are likely to be volatile in the months ahead."
This also marked the first time in four months that the index fell.
"This month's decrease was already fully realized prior to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, at which time about 85% of our interviews for this preliminary release had been completed," Hsu said.
— Fred Imbert
The NASDAQ 100 is up over 6% this week, putting it on track for its best week of the year since Nov. 11, 2022 when the index gained 8.84%.
The NASDAQ 100 has also outperformed the S&P 500 for 11 consecutive days through Thursday's close. This marks its longest streak of outperformance since July 24, 2017 when the outperformance of the Nasdaq 100 over the S&P 500 lasted for 14 days.
— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla
The major indexes were down as trading kicked off.
The Dow was down 0.6%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.2%.
Still, all three are on pace for gains this week.
— Alex Harring