Banking stocks fell Tuesday on news of capital-raising projects within the sector.
The KBW Bank Index fell 1.45%.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, American Express Co. and several other financial services firms announced that they had raised billions of additional capital to get out of the Troubled Asset Relief Program or fulfill capital requirements sparked by the government's stress tests.
"There's a lot of capital being raised today, and anytime you issue more equity, it has a dilutive effect on stocks," said Cassandra Toroian, the president and chief investment officer of Bell Rock Capital LLC in Rehoboth, Del.
JPMorgan Chase's shares fell 4.5%. Morgan Stanley rose 0.7%, and Amex fell 4.9 %.
Bank of America Corp. rose 1.8%. The Charlotte company announced that it had raised nearly all of the $33.9 billion required by the government.
Shares rose for others that have announced efforts to raise capital. KeyCorp rose 8 cents, to $4.82. Zions Bancorp. rose 3.1%, while SunTrust Banks Inc. rose 15.5%. Regions Financial Corp. rose 1 cent, to $4.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.22%, and the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.2%.
The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that its April index of pending sales of existing homes rose 6.7% from March, to 90.3. Economists on average had expected the index to be 85.
