US open: Stocks mostly higher, despite selling pressure in banks

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New York Community Bancorp Inc.

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19:55 09/08/24

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Wall Street's main market gauges were rebounding from a steep sell-off in the previous session, helped by a softer than expected reading on a key measure of wage pressures.

As of 1602 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials was drifting lower by 0.06% to 38,128.0, while the S&P 500 was adding 0.22% to 4,856.39.

Yet bank stocks continued to be under pressure.

Shares of New York Community Bancorp - which had rescued Signature Bank in 2023 - were off by 13.5% following a near 40% drop the day before after the lender cut its dividend and estimated higher loan losses going forwards.

That news was dragging the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index down by about 3% after the previous session's 6% drawdown.

In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was noticeably lower, giving back 10 basis points to 3.824%.

Contributing to the move lower in yields, the Department of Labor reported that unit labour costs increased at a quarterly annualised pace of only 0.5% over the three months to December (consensus: 1.7%).

Worth noting, investors were also waiting on the monthly non-farm payrolls report due out the next day.

The jobs numbers might prove key in terms of validating Fed chair Jerome Powell's message from the night before to the effect that rate cuts as soon as March were not on the table.

Also according to Labor, initial unemployment claims rose by 9,000 over the week ending on 27 January to reach 224,000 (consensus: 212,000).

So-called secondary claims meanwhile jumped by 70,000 to 1.898m in the week ending on 20 January.

The Institute for Supply Management's factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index surprised to the upside, rising from a reading of 47.1 for December to hit 49.1 in January (consensus: 47.0).

Dow Jones - Risers

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $124.71 3.25%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $60.44 1.61%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $403.03 1.37%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $167.38 1.29%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $317.82 1.13%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $158.56 0.90%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $302.71 0.80%
Visa Inc. (V) $275.30 0.74%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $185.74 0.73%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $184.61 0.52%