Stocks started off the week in flux as market participants assessed federal plans to support depositors in the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank's failure. Major averages were particularly volatile throughout the session on bets that the Federal Reserve will pause its rate hikes in response to financial turmoil in the banking sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 90 points, while the S&P 500 Index was 0.28% lower and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.45% higher.
Here's how the market settled on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.15% or -5.83 points to 3,855.76
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.28% or -90.50 points to 31819.14
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.45 or +49.96 points to 11,188.84
Bank stocks remained under pressure on Monday after federal regulators closed SVB on Friday and Signature Bank on Sunday, marking the biggest and second biggest bank failures since the 2008 financial crisis, respectively.
Regional banks continue to face most of that sour sentiment, with the SPDR KBW Regional Banking ETF (NYSE: KRE) falling over 10%. For single stocks, First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) fell over 60% after the bank secured funding from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). FRC alongside PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ: PACW), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF), Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL), and Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) were also halted on Monday due to increased volatility.
President Joe Biden said Monday morning that "no losses will be borne by the taxpayers" in regards to the collapse of SVB. The president said that customers will be protected and vowed to ask Congress and federal banking regulators to strengthen rules for banks moving forward.
Biden's remarks follow a joint statement from the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stating that all SVB depositors will have access to their money starting Monday.
The financial crisis for the banking sector outweighed February's jobs report on Friday, which topped expectations as the U.S. economy added 311,000 jobs. However, that was a slower pace than January's blowout print. The unemployment rate also unexpectedly increased to 3.6%, while wage growth rose by a slower-than-expected 4.6%.
Economic releases will be on the forefront of trader's minds this week as Wall Street continues to predict what the central bank's next moves will be. On Tuesday, investors will get an inflation snapshot from February's Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, while Wednesday will show the health of the U.S. consumer with February's readout on retail sales.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) no longer sees the Fed issuing another interest rate hike at its policy meeting next week, citing "recent stress" in the financial sector. The firm had previously forecasted for a 25 basis point hike this month.