The tone was set for today’s session Wednesday night when two more regional banks Western Alliance Bancorp (NYSE: WAL) and PacWest Bancorp (PACW) announced they were pursuing strategic options. In other words, they are in trouble, big time, and looking for a bailout from a larger bank.
While the index spent some time in the green during the premarket session, the index could not even reach the bottom of Wednesday’s range (4105) during the regular session. In fact, it could not even climb into the 4100 handle, with the intraday high being 4098.25.
The price action on the downside was intriguing. Despite the index breaching last week’s low (4068.75), reaching 4062.25 at lunchtime, it rallied back to barely make a new intraday high before retreating into the close.
For the session, the index declined 31.75 handles at the closing price of 4075.75.
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was the biggest gainer of the top components of the index. For the session, the issue added $0.59 or 0.36% at the closing price of $161.20.
That was over one percent better than the cash index’s decline of 0.77%.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was the biggest loser of the top components of the index. The issue extended its losing streak to four sessions declining $1.50 or 1.39% at the closing price of $106.43. The issue has shed nearly $12 since it was downgraded by Goldman Sachs on Monday.
