Friday, April 11, 2014

Stocks: The sell-off saga continues

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Investors looking for a ray of hope from the banking sector will need to keep looking.

Stocks sank early Friday, extending this week's heavy losses, after JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) reported earnings that fell short of investors' expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 100 points in early trading, with JPMorgan leading the way. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also went right down at the opening bell.

It's been a tough week for so-called momentum stocks, with high-flying technology and healthcare companies bearing the brunt. The Nasdaq is down more than 2% for the week.

All three big U.S. stock indexes are now negative for the year. Even the S&P 500 is off more than 1% year to date.

The selling showed no sign of abating Friday as attention turned to the banking sector.

JPMorgan's results were hurt by weakness in bond trading, but consumer lending and deposits were a bright spot. Despite the lackluster quarter, CEO Jamie Dimon said he has "growing confidence in the economy."

The news was a bit rosier for Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), which reported a double-digit gain for net profit in the first quarter.

Earnings reports from big banks for the first quarter are dominating investor sentiment. Given yesterday's tech sell-off, investor queasiness could easily spread into other corners of the market. In fact, all but about 20 companies in the S&P 500 fell yesterday.

"With earnings season in the U.S. under way, tech company earnings will be under intense scrutiny with investors likely to dump their tech stocks on even the faintest sign of bad news out of a company," wrote Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist for ETX Capital in London, in a report.

In corporate news, shares of H&R Block (HRB) jumped after the company said it will sell its bank to Bofl Federal Bank. Shares of retailer GAP (GPS, Fortune 500) slid when the company said sales fell in March.

The rout in tech shares spilled over into Asian markets Friday. Shares of Tencent plunged 6.8%. Samsung fell, as did leading Japanese tech brands. The Nikkei index plunged 2.38%, taking its loss for the week to 7.3%.

European markets ! were also caught up in the fallout from Wall Street's slump. To top of page

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