FTSE 100 tumbles at the open amid US regional banking worries
The London stock market has fallen sharply at the start of trading, as investor confidence is rocked by fears over problems in the US regional banking sector.
The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has tumbled by 131 points at the start of trading, a fall of 1.4%, down to 9304 points.
Banks are among the top fallers, with Barclays down 4.7%, Standard Chartered losing 4.3% amd NatWest off 3.1%. Asset manager ICG has lost 5%.
Traders are alarmed that two US banks yesterday disclosed issues with bad and fraudulent loans, raising fears that more problems may be lurking in the sector.
This comes on top of rising fears about the private credit sector, with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva admitting yesterday that this keeps her awake at night.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research, Hargreaves Lansdown, explains why markets are sliding, with Wall Street set for fresh losses:
US stock futures are down today, as credit concerns compound the jitters over an escalation in US-China trade tensions and the ongoing government shutdown in Washington. This comes after Wall Street closed lower on Thursday. Despite growing hopes of further rate cuts this year, attention is turning to the underlying health of the economy, as emerging credit losses amongst America’s regional banks raised further questions about lending practices.
That’s done little to calm jitters about contagion from the bankruptcy of auto parts supplier First Brands, after it racked up billions of dollars in off-balance sheet trade financing agreements. This sort of debt can be difficult to map and it will take a while for the saga to play out. But on the flipside, the big US banks remain well capitalised and appear to be in rude health after Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo all beat Q3 estimates earlier in the week.
Key events
Storm clouds are gathering over the financial markets, warns Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor:
There are increasing signs of storm clouds gathering over markets, with little relief from the building wall of worry.
Already grappling with stretched stock valuations in the AI space, an unresolved government shutdown and a deteriorating relationship between Beijing and Washington, investors were exposed to a new source of concern in the form of lending practices and bad loans for US regional banks.
Of themselves, the credit losses announced by two regional banks were limited and seem to be contained. While there are hopes that this could be an isolated incident, the episode brought back unwelcome memories of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023 and, with several regional banks yet to report, investors are on high alert. Indeed, despite there being no obvious read across to the large banks, the reports were enough to put the skids under the sector as a whole, with losses of around 3% more or less across the board.
Almost every one of the hundred stocks on the FTSE 100 index is lower this morning.
There are just five risers, led by publisher Pearson (+2.9%) which reported sales growth this morning, and engineering firm Smiths Group (+1.3%) which sold an interconnect unit yesterday.
The UK stock market is continuing to slide.
Twenty minutes into trading, the FTSE 100 index is down 150 points or 1.6% at 9285 points, with financial stocks continuing to lead the fallers.
Fears are swirling today that we could be facing a repeat of the US regional banking crisis of 2023.
That episode led to the demise of US bank SVB and then Europe’s Credit Suisse.
As Jim Reid, market strategist at Deutsche Bank, told clients:
An initially positive risk mood turned during the US session yesterday after news that Zions Bancorp (-13.14%) made a $50m charge-off while Western Alliance (-10.81%) alleged it also suffered from fraud on loans to the same borrowers linked to distressed commercial mortgages.
While this was an ostensibly isolated story at two banks each less than $10bn market cap, the event drew inevitable comparisons to the regional bank stress that followed the collapse of SVB in March 2023 and raised broader questions over potential credit quality issues after a lengthy period of elevated rates and expansion in private credit, following also the bankruptcy of subprime auto lender Tricolor last month.
European stock markets have also dropped like stones at the open.
France’s CAC 40 has fallen 1.5%, Spain’s IBEX lost 1.2%, and German’s DAX has lost 1.9%.
FTSE 100 tumbles at the open amid US regional banking worries
The London stock market has fallen sharply at the start of trading, as investor confidence is rocked by fears over problems in the US regional banking sector.
The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has tumbled by 131 points at the start of trading, a fall of 1.4%, down to 9304 points.
Banks are among the top fallers, with Barclays down 4.7%, Standard Chartered losing 4.3% amd NatWest off 3.1%. Asset manager ICG has lost 5%.
Traders are alarmed that two US banks yesterday disclosed issues with bad and fraudulent loans, raising fears that more problems may be lurking in the sector.
This comes on top of rising fears about the private credit sector, with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva admitting yesterday that this keeps her awake at night.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research, Hargreaves Lansdown, explains why markets are sliding, with Wall Street set for fresh losses:
US stock futures are down today, as credit concerns compound the jitters over an escalation in US-China trade tensions and the ongoing government shutdown in Washington. This comes after Wall Street closed lower on Thursday. Despite growing hopes of further rate cuts this year, attention is turning to the underlying health of the economy, as emerging credit losses amongst America’s regional banks raised further questions about lending practices.
That’s done little to calm jitters about contagion from the bankruptcy of auto parts supplier First Brands, after it racked up billions of dollars in off-balance sheet trade financing agreements. This sort of debt can be difficult to map and it will take a while for the saga to play out. But on the flipside, the big US banks remain well capitalised and appear to be in rude health after Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo all beat Q3 estimates earlier in the week.
Asia-Pacific markets slide
Asia-Pacific markets have fallen today, led by a sharp selloff in China.
China’s CSI300 index has dropped by 2.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei is down 1%.
Stock seem to be under pressure after losses on Wall Street yesterday, due to worries about the US regional banking sector.
Reuters also attributes the selloff to “investor caution over trade uncertainties and profit-taking in artificial intelligence shares”.
Jitters are rising about US regional banks, after two lenders disclosed issues with bad and fraudulent loans.
Regional banking stocks fell sharply yesterday, as Wall Street fretted about the state of credit markets.
Zions Bancorp announced it had a $50m charge-off over two bad loans from its subsidiary, California Bank & Trust in San Diego. Western Alliance also said it was dealing with a fraudulent borrower.
More here:
Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at capital.com, says:
Financial stability risks reared their head [yesterday], with two separate regional banks announcing a significant write down due to exposure to one major borrower. Such events raised fears about systemic risks.
While meaty, the size of the bad loans in and of itself is unlikely to pose risks to the overall system. However, the underlying cause of the write-down is lax lending standards and fraud, stoking fears that such behaviour is endemic and liable to see similar defaults occur.
The pound has climbed to its highest level against the dollar in over a week this morning.
Sterling is up a quarter of a cent today at $1.3455, the strongest level since 7 October.
Dollar on track for worst week since August
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
It’s been a rough week for the US dollar, which is set for its biggest weekly drop in two and a half months.
Rising trade tensions between the US and China, and worries that America’s economy may be weakening, have pulled down the greenback against other currencies this week.
The dollar index, which tracks its performance against a basket of currencies, has lost 0.95% so far this week – the biggest five-day drop since early August.
The dollar weakened after Donald Trump threatened new 100% tariffs on China in a row over its rare earth exports last Friday.
Earlier this week, US trade representative Jamieson Greer claimed those export restrictions were a “global supply-chain power grab”, denting hopes of détente between Washington and Beijing.
Concerns about the US economy – which is currently in an economic data blackout due to the government shutdown – is encouraging some investors to diversify away from assets such as the dollar, and Treasury bills, into harder assets such as gold.
Suspicions that US interest rates could be cut steadily in the months ahead are also weighing on the dollar.
Raffi Boyadjian, lead market analyst at Trading Point, explains:
The US dollar…has been sliding since trade relations started to worsen again. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar tumbled to a more than one-week low today before recovering slightly.
Fed Chair Powell’s remarks this week have also been weighing on the greenback. An October rate cut is almost certain after Powell once again emphasized the growing downside risks to the labour market, even in the absence of official payrolls data.
The ongoing government shutdown is another risk that could upend the dollar’s mini rebound since mid-September.
