S&P Pares Losses as Banks Get Earnings Season Underway

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Investing.com – Wall Street turned positive Tuesday, as banks got the earnings season underway, but worries that rising cases could slow the pace of economic recovery kept gains in check.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.97%, the S&P 500 gained 0.21%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.42%.

Financials traded flat following mixed earnings from banks as JPMorgan and Citigroup beat consensus estimates, thanks to strong trading revenue, while Wells Fargo cut its dividend by 80% and reported its first-quarter loss in more than a decade.

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) was flat, while Citigroup (NYSE:C) was down more than 2%, and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) fell 5.6%.

The quarterly results provided investors with further insight into the impact from the pandemic on lending activity, as the trio of banks collectively socked away nearly $28 billion to fortify themselves for a potential wave of bad loans.

Elsewhere, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) fell 2.4% after reporting a wider than expected loss since 1987 and warning that it would be more than two years before the company sees a sustainable recovery.

The start of the earnings season comes as coronavirus cases totalled 3.43 million nationwide, with 138,000 dead so far, stoking investor worries that more states will be forced to roll back reopening measures.

Energy was the biggest gainer on the day, as oil prices remained steady despite ongoing concerns about the strength of the recovery in crude demand.

“There is a lot of concern that if more states begin to shut back down over Covid concerns, that could affect gasoline demand and thus the demand for ethanol,” said Tomm Pfitzenmaier of Summit Commodity Brokerage.

Tech, meanwhile, pared some losses as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) eased from the lows of the day.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), up 1%, held onto slim gains after Piper Sandler (NYSE:PIPR) lifted its price on the stock to a Street high of $2,322 citing the electric automaker’s first-mover advantage.