Stocks End Mixed, Dow Lags After Financial Earnings
5:05 pm Friday, January 14th, 2022
Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday with the biggest drag from the financial sector as investors were disappointed by financial results from big U.S. banks, which cast a shadow over the fourth-quarter’s earnings season kick-off.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), and BlackRock (BLK) were down between 3-5% following their mixed earnings reports, while Wells Fargo (WFC) trades slightly lower despite beating top and bottom-line estimates.
Growth stocks remain weak, but like yesterday, you can’t really blame it on interest rates. The 10-yr yield is up just one basis point to 1.72% after trading at 1.75% overnight. The 2-yr yield is up two basis points to 1.91%. The U.S. Dollar Index is up 0.1% to 94.87. WTI crude is up 0.1% to $82.22/bbl.
Specifying the data, total retail sales were down 1.9% month-over-month in December (Briefing.com consensus 0.0%) while retail sales, excluding autos, decreased 2.3% (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%). On a year-over-year basis, total retail sales were up 16.9% and up 18.8% excluding autos.
The key takeaway from the report is that total retail sales, which are not adjusted for inflation, contracted at their fastest pace since last February in the face of broadly higher prices. This suggests that inflation is weighing down consumer spending.
Separately, import prices fell 0.2% in December after increasing 0.7% in November. Excluding oil, import prices increased 0.5% after increasing 0.5% in November. Export prices fell 1.8% after increasing 0.8% in November. Excluding agriculture, export prices fell 2.1% after increasing 0.6% in November.
Other headwinds for sentiment include downside guidance from Sherwin-Williams (SHW) and Boston Beer (SAM).
