Rate sensitive bank stocks rally after cuts
Main U.S. indexes rally, Nasdaq up ~2.8%
Tech leads S&P 500 sector gainers; utilities weakest group
Euro STOXX 600 index rises 1.4%
Dollar off; gold up >1%, crude up ~2%; bitcoin rallies ~5%
U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield rises to ~3.74%
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RATE SENSITIVE BANK STOCKS RALLY AFTER CUTS
Bank stocks pared gains slightly on Thursday but the S&P 500 bank index .SPXBK was still up 1.95% in early afternoon trading a day after the Federal Reserve announced a half percentage point cut to interest rates.
While banks benefit from higher rates to a point, they are also sensitive to any resulting economic slowing and pull backs in loan demand.
And while lower rates will reduce interest income initially they are also expected to reduce deposit rates that banks pay their customers and to ultimately boost loan demand.
"Net interest income today is in the process of bottoming. As rate cuts happen, and the goal is to stimulate the economy, if you get loan growth as well, you have the potential for net interest income growth to resume in a consistent manner. It could resume over the next several quarters," Chris McGratty, managing director for U.S. bank research at KBW told Reuters.
So when can investors expect to see a dip in interest earned on their savings accounts?
"There's a lag. The rate cuts were expected so banks are prepared to cut rates for depositors. They're going to start cutting deposit rates now. It won't be fully effective for several quarters but they'll start having conversations."
In the meantime McGratty sees the biggest boost from the most rate sensitive banks and those with commercial real estate exposure. In the S&P 500 bank index the biggest gainer was KeyCorp KEY.N, up 3.4%, followed by Citigroup C.N and Citizens Financial CFG.N, up 3.4%. The KBW regional banking index .KRX was up 2%.
The SPXBK index had risen more than 2.5% earlier on Thursday, touching its higest level since Sept 10. It was last up 19.6% year-to-date similar to the S&P 500's 19.9% gain.
(Sinéad Carew)
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FOR THURSDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:
WITH FIRST FED CUT, IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGING OF THE GUARD - SG - CLICK HERE
LARGER FED CUT RAISES RISKS FOR U.S. DOLLAR - CLICK HERE
THURSDAY DATA ROUNDUP: FED HANGOVER - CLICK HERE
WALL STREET RALLIES AS FED PIVOT SINKS IN - CLICK HERE
JEFFERIES SAYS BANKING INDUSTRY'S INTEREST INCOME IN JEOPARDY, BUT DEPOSITS COULD BE CHEAPER - CLICK HERE
NASDAQ COMPOSITE: LAND OF CONFUSION - CLICK HERE
CENBANK DIVERGENCES ENDING, APART FROM JAPAN - AMUNDI - CLICK HERE
R&D PICKS IN EUROPE - CLICK HERE
MINERS DO HEAVY LIFTING AS STOXX RISES AHEAD OF BOE - CLICK HERE
STOXX EYES JUBILANT START AFTER FED'S BUMPER CUT - CLICK HERE
UK INFLATION TO KEEP BOE ON CAUTIOUS PATH - CLICK HERE
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