Wall Street opened with falls led by falling bank stocks

Bank stocks entered the day with losses on Wall Street, rocked by fears that the biggest US bank failure in nearly 15 years could have repercussions around the world.

After the first 10 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones fell 0.54%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.27% and Nasdaq Technology lost 1.28%.

In the banking sector, Wells Fargo fell 4.3% and Bank of America lost more than 5%. For its part, the regional bank Première République fell by more than 65%.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 3.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 2.5%.

ING banking analysts said most banks did not hold the high percentage of government bonds held by SVB, but added that “that doesn’t mean there aren’t more SVB on the market”.

“So far, it appears that potentially problematic banks are few in number and, importantly, they do not extend to so-called systemically important banks,” said the ING analyst.

President Joe Biden assured Americans on Monday that their banking system “is safe” and that their deposits will be available “when they need them”, after the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which specializes in the technology sector.

According to the president, the government will do everything possible to ensure that savers get their money back and, in any event, “taxpayers will not be liable for any losses”. And he said “the money will come from the fees banks pay for deposit insurance.”

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