Wall Street closing lower; bank stocks fall

Stocks are closing mostly lower on Wall Street Friday. The S&P 500 lost 0.1% to end with its first weekly loss in the last three. Bank stocks fell after the Federal Reserve announced it would end some emergency measures put in place for the industry last year to help deal with the pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7%, falling for a second-straight week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury edged higher. FedEx shares soared to a three-month high after the package delivery giant reported strong third-quarter earnings.

There are also concerns that the rise in bond yields could be a harbinger of inflation. Fed officials said earlier this week that they may let the U.S. economy “run hot” for some time in order to not stymie the economic recovery as the pandemic eases.

On Friday the Fed announced it would end some of the emergency measures put in place during the pandemic. It will restore some of the capital requirements for big banks that were suspended in the early months of the pandemic, in order to give banks flexibility. The banking industry had hoped those measures would be extended.

The announcement briefly raised concerns about more bond selling, but those fears have been tempered, said Barry Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel.

“Overall, the very near term concerns are going back to some of the bigger picture questions,” he said. “How high can yields go and what does that mean for stock valuations.”

Big bank stocks were particularly hurt, since the Fed’s measures mostly apply to the nation’s largest banks. Citigroup fell 0.8%, while Bank of America fell 1.3% and JPMorgan Chase slid 2.7%.

Shares of transportation company FedEx leaped 6% in afternoon trading after the company reported earnings well above analysts’ estimates.

Shares of Nike fell by 3.1% after the athletic apparel company said pandemic-caused congestion at ports caused sales to slow in the last quarter.