US stocks are sliding open as investors assess big banks

Wall Street’s major indexes fell for a second straight day as investors analyzed results from Bank of America and Citigroup, while data on retail sales and producer prices failed to shake expectations for interest rate cuts later this year.Shares of Bank of America fell 3.5% even as the lender beat quarterly profit expectations, while Wells Fargo fell 4.4% after missing fourth-quarter revenue expectations.

Citigroup fell 0.5% despite higher revenue.This follows warnings from JPMorgan executives that a proposed cap on credit card interest rates could put pressure on consumers and hit profitability in the financial sector.

The weakness in banking stocks comes after a 25% jump in the past twelve months. The sector fell 0.4% that day.

“Banks have started the year very strongly and markets need some time to digest the results,” said Jake Johnston, deputy CIO of Advisors Asset Management.

“We’re seeing some of the estimates miss slightly, but these stocks had a strong run-up to these reports, and it’s not unusual to see a small pullback.” Analysts predict that S&P 500 companies will average 8.8% annualized earnings growth in the fourth quarter, pushing full-year 2025 earnings growth to 13.2%, according to IBES LSEG data.

At 9:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 83.68 points, or 0.17%, to 49,108.31, the S&P 500 lost 30.26 points, or 0.43%, to 6,933.48 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 158.76 points, or 0.68%, to 23,548.45.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings will come Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET (3 p.m. ET) amid major disputes pending, including the legality of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

ECONOMIC DATA IN FOCUS

U.S. producer prices matched expectations in November, but retail sales exceeded expectations, after data a day earlier showed consumer prices rose as expected in December.

For now, interest rates are widely expected to remain stable through the first half of the year, including at the Fed’s January meeting, as long as inflation and growth remain on track. However, according to LSEG data, traders are still pricing in at least two cuts before the end of the year.

Remarks were also expected throughout the day from Fed voting members John Williams, Anna Paulson and Stephen ‍Miran.

The record stock market rally is also showing early signs of broadening this year, with the S&P 400 mid-caps and S&P 600 small-caps outperforming the large-cap S&P 500 so far this year.

The energy index continued to rise for the second day in a row, up almost 1%, on ongoing concerns about supply disruption in Iran, while the consumer discretionary sector fell 1%.

Netflix rose 0.5% after a source told Reuters the streaming giant was preparing an all-cash offer for Warner Bros Discovery studios and streaming assets.

On the NYSE, advancing issues outnumbered declining issues by a ratio of 1.17 to 1, while declining issues on the Nasdaq outnumbered leading issues by a ratio of 1.18 to 1.

The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite posted 28 new highs and 29 new lows.