WEEKLY BUSINESS ROUNDUP
Global Business Week: World’s Top 10 Banks
The state of Financial markets & Economies, Weekly Charts, Business Trends & Statistics
The week ended on a sour note for the U.S. stock market, with four consecutive days of losses marking the worst performance of the year thus far. In response, investors turned to safe-haven assets such as U.S. Treasuries and gold, following the closure of tech-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank by federal regulators on Friday. This marked the biggest U.S. bank failure since 2008, causing regional bank stocks to plummet, with the top S&P regional banking ETF dropping 16% over the week — its worst performance since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Despite the release of the February jobs report, which suggested a potential easing of inflation as employee wages rose less than anticipated, the bank stock turmoil took center stage. The Dow Jones average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all experienced losses, with the Dow Jones falling 4.4%, the S&P 500 slipping 4.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite losing 4.7% over the week. Next week is important on the data front — U.S CPI and PPI are due on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, both key determinants in Fed’s fight against inflation.
