The stock prices of most publicly traded broker-dealers and financial firms have seen strong declines in 2022, despite rising interest rates, which tend to produce strong net interest income.
These declines have been tied to predictions of an economic recession in 2023, which have led some of these firms to announce layoffs or scale back their hiring.
Still, some broker-dealers are benefiting from rising interest rates while striking important deals — and have seen their stocks soar this year.
As for ETFs tied to the financial sector, the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) is down about 10% year to date. Its holdings include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and its total assets are roughly $33.7 billion.
The Vanguard Financials Index Fund (VFAIX) has dropped 10.5% so far in 2022. Its $776 million of assets in Admiral shares are held in JPMorgan, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other firms.
Here’s how far many, but not all, of the major broker-dealers have seen their stock prices decline from Jan. 1 through Dec. 13, according to data from MarketWatch.
Firms in this sector should begin reporting their fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2022 on Jan 13, 2023.
(Image: Chris Nicholls/ALM)