Equities ended the day mixed March 2, a day after markets traded down on fears of a trade war sparked by the White House possibly imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on its trade partners.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.29% to 24,538.06, the S&P 500 gained 0.51% to 2,691.25 and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.08% to 7,257.87.
Bank stocks appeared to move less. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 0.10% to $113.32, Citigroup Inc. increased 0.03% to $73.68, Wells Fargo & Co. added 0.17% to $57.41 and Bank of America Corp. gained 0.48% to $31.63.
Mitch Sacks, chief investment officer at Grand Slam Asset Management, said in an interview that the big story for bank equities is the rate environment. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has painted a rosy picture of the U.S. economy, telling lawmakers this week that he expects strong demand from consumers and businesses to invest in what should be a "strong" next few years.
As a result of Powell's new commentary, observers have been playing with the idea of four rate hikes in 2018.
The question is whether or not bond markets will reprice to reflect greater optimism in the long term.
"We think the yield curve needs to steepen out, which is good from a bank standpoint," Sacks said.
S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.
Market prices and index values are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change.
