Start of volatile day on Wall Street amid falling bank shares

New York Stock Exchange (Reuters)

Bank shares entered the day with losses on Wall Street, rocked by concerns that the biggest US bank failure in nearly 15 years could have repercussions around the world.

After the first 10 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones fell 0.54%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.27% and the Nasdaq technology lost 1.28%.

In the banking sector, Wells Fargo falls 4.3% and Bank of America loses more than 5%. For its part, the regional bank First Republic falls more than 65%.

In Europe, the German DAX fell 3.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 2.5%.

ING bank analysts said most banks do not hold the high percentage of government bonds that SVB held, but added that “that does not mean there are not more SVBs out there.”

“So far, it appears that potentially problematic banks are few and, importantly, they do not extend to so-called systemically important banks,” the ING analyst said.

President Joe Biden assured Americans this Monday that their banking system “is safe” and their deposits will be available “when they need them”, after the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), specialized in the technology sector.

According to the president, the government will do everything possible for savers to recover their money and, in any case, “taxpayers will not be responsible for the losses.” And he stated that “the money will come from the fees that banks pay for deposit insurance.”

News in development

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