Bank and thrift stocks slipped as declined afterreporting earnings Tuesday, Oct. 11.

The SNL U.S. Bank Index fell 0.97% to 422.41,while the SNL U.S. Thrift Index slid 0.65% to 824.06.

Broader markets traded down throughout the dayand closed down more than 1% across the board. "When you've got bondyields going up while stocks are going down, it usually means that there is apolicy element driving the market," Christopher Probyn, chief economistwith State Street Global Advisors, said, adding that Federal Reserve officials'signals that a rate hike could come before the end of the year may finally besinking in across domestic assets markets.

Neil Shankar, an economist with TD Bank Group,said markets may be positioning based on the more sharply hawkish tone in theminutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's last meeting. "There are alot more people in markets hopping on to that bandwagon ... and markets arepricing that in," Shankar said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% to18,128.66, the S&P 500 retreated 1.24% to 2,136.73 and the Nasdaq compositeindex dropped 1.54% to 5,246.79.

The industry's biggest players also finished down.JPMorgan Chase &Co. slipped 0.48% to $68.31, Citigroup Inc. lost 1.13% to $48.99 and shed 1.17% to$16.11.

Wells Fargo & Co. was down0.44% to $45.45.

CFO John Shrewsbury told a group of top companyexecutives that the company's third-quarter earnings were not much affected as aconsequence of its fraudulent account scandal, and said that "the storyline is worse than the economics at this point," according to TheWall Street Journal. Wells Fargo is set to report quarterly resultsFriday, Oct. 14.

Former employees are also now saying the bankpushed them to hard-selloverdraft protections, according to a separate Journal report. Former bankers with the company in several statessay they were instructed to tell customers that overdraft protection was arequirement for opening a checking account, they told the newspaper.

With earnings season underway forthe bank industry, Little Rock, Ark.-based Bank of the Ozarks closed off 3.48%,to $39.92, after the company announced third-quarter net income available to commonstockholders of $76.0 million, or 66 cents per share, compared to $46.1million, or 52 cents per share, in the year-ago third quarter.

Enterprise Financial Services Corp shares jumped 2.25%to $32.33 after the company said it is buying Festus, Mo.-based Jefferson County Bancshares Inc. in a deal valued atabout $130.6 million in cash and stock. Enterprise said the dealis likely to be accretive to earnings in 2017.

Among thrifts, New York Community Bancorp Inc. edged down 0.07% to $14.06,and TFS Financial Corp.(MHC) shed 0.94% to $17.83.

In economic news, CoreLogic said U.S.foreclosure inventory fell 29.6% year over year in August, and completedforeclosures plunged 42.4%.

Market prices and index values are current as ofthe time of publication and are subject to change.