Financials One of the Worst Performing Sectors as Dollar Strengthens

October 26, 2009 1:10 PM EDT

The financial group is one of the worst performing sectors today as we have several factors working against these stocks. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLF), commonly referred to as "the XLF", is down more than 1.7% today, underperforming the Dow which is currently down 83 pts, or about 0.8%.

After opening flat and trading just modestly lower around 11am EDT, finanicals -- and the entire stock market -- turned sharply lower as the dollar began catching a bid. For quite some time now, the trade has gone stocks/gold/commodities in one direction, and the dollar in the other. Today this move has been dominating trader's decisions.

Also adding to downside today, we are hearing rumors that the S&P could downgrade Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and several other banks. When questioned on the reports, an S&P spokesperson said they did not downgrade Bank of America and that the rating agency could not comment if anything is in the works.

Finally, controversial banking analyst Dick Bove downgraded several banks this morning: Fifth Third (Nasdaq: FITB) and SunTrust (NYSE: STI) to Sell and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) to Neutral.

Elsewhere in the Financial sector:

  • Bank of America - down 5% to $15.39
  • Citigroup (NYSE: C) - down 2.5% to $4.35
  • JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) - down 2.3% to $44.17
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) - down 1.7% to $28.80
  • Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) - down 0.6% to $179.35
  • Fifth Third - down 6% to $9.71
  • SunTrust - down 4.6% to $20.01
  • US Bancorp - down 2.9% to $24.22


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Stocks Mentioned

BAC 16.09

+0.01 +0.06%
Volume: 128,292,589
Track BAC

C 4.20

-0.06 -1.41%
Volume: 124,410,946
Track C

FITB 9.97

-0.08 -0.80%
Volume: 18,004,802
Track FITB

GS 170.01

-2.82 -1.63%
Volume: 8,821,894
Track GS

JPM 42.46

-0.09 -0.21%
Volume: 25,331,716
Track JPM

STI 22.04

+0.18 +0.82%
Volume: 7,218,311
Track STI

USB 23.29

+0.16 +0.69%
Volume: 11,220,998
Track USB

WFC 27.87

-0.45 -1.59%
Volume: 41,878,765
Track WFC

XLF 14.60

-0.09 -0.61%
Volume: 52,975,888
Track XLF


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Comments

Suntrust Mortgage, Inc.
cdc on Oct 26, 2009 01:35 PM

Didn't they get a bunch of bailout money? What did they do with it all? Did they get taxpayer money because their approved loans weren't performing? Has anyone checked out the underwriting of these so-called "approved" loans? Maybe they just need a taxpayer vacation,,,,,Poor Suntrust! I wish I could be motivated to do bad in business, however, I'd just fail. Oh, that's right, it looks like the worse this bank did in business the bigger the bailout...Isn't this bank a foreign institution? American taxpayer money? 2+2 still = 4 doesn't it?

SunTrust NOT trustworthy!
Callie Calhoun on Oct 26, 2009 01:23 PM

I would be very cautious purchasing anything from Suntrust as I witnessed a fraudulent residential loan application approved by them. The woman didn't even have a job! The property sits incomplete for over 4 years! Construction Loan Administrators - I don't think so! Billions for bailout for this company on these type of loans- PRICELESS! Most likely laughing all the way to the bank!


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