US open: Major indices head south following bank earnings

dl wall street wall st new york city new york stock exchange nyse dow jones nasdaq street sign nyc united states usa america pb — Sharecast / Alessandro D Andrea via Pixabay

Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Friday as market participants digested quarterly figures from a number of the nation's biggest banks.

As of 1445 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.59% at 33,987.90, while the S&P 500 lost 0.80% to 3,951.44 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.74% weaker at 10,919.99.

The Dow opened 202.07 points lower on Friday, almost wiping out gains recorded in the previous session after the Labor Department's CPI reading showed prices had declined 0.1% across the US in November.

Bank earnings will be in focus on Friday, with JPMorgan Chase posting fourth-quarter earnings per share that came in a whole $0.50 ahead of expectations on revenues of $35.57bn. However, shares headed south after chief executive Jamie Dimon warned of coming headwinds.

Elsewhere, Bank of America's quarterly performance also topped expectations as rising interest rates helped to offset declines in its investment banking unit, Wells Fargo reported a fourth-quarter profit of $2.86bn and earnings per share of $0.67, beating Wall Street expectations, and Citi posted a drop in quarterly net income amid a jump in credit losses.

Outside of the banks, Delta Air Lines said higher labour costs had dented profit guidance but still posted $13.44bn in total sales during the final quarter of 2022, while UnitedHealth beat earnings expectations by $0.16 per share on 13% higher revenues year-on-year.

On the macro front, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for January will be published at 1500 GMT.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

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Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $149.60 3.24%
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Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $58.52 1.63%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $41.81 1.53%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $369.94 1.50%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $30.29 1.47%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $238.51 1.16%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $177.10 1.07%