It was a nuanced day on Wall Street as major indexes split directions, led by a mixed market sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower by 0.7% as rekindled bank fears eliminated hopes for a positive close. Troubled regional bank First Investment Bank is again fighting for survival, and its woes are having a ripple effect across the US banking sector.
Shares of First Republic (ticker: FRC)were down 30% just a day after its valuation got halved. With that baked into the market’s performance, Dow Jones reversed early-session gains of around 100 points. The S&P 500 also turned negative on the day, down just under 0.4%.
Bank jitters couldn’t eclipse the bright performance of Big Tech. The tech-dense Nasdaq Composite outperformed its two peers, the Dow and the S&P 500, buoyed by strong quarterly performance of Microsoft and other tech stocks, all focused on AI-fueled growth prospects.
