Bank stocks spent most of Monday in negative territory, as investors continued to worry whether the economy is recovering, and the KBW Bank Index fell 0.09%.
"It's a carryover from some of the negative economic news that we've had in recent days, which has put a damper on expectations that the economy was turning around," said Frank Barkocy, the director of research at Mendon Capital Advisors Corp. "While it's hard to make judgments on a couple of sets of numbers, it suggests that the recovery process might take longer than anticipated."
Investors were particularly concerned about a Labor Department report Thursday that said the June unemployment rate rose to 9.5%, from 9.4% in May, a 26-year high, Barkocy said.
The worries about unemployment largely overshadowed a Monday report by the Institute for Supply Management saying its services index rose to 47 in June from 44 in May. Economists on average had expected 45.5.
Decliners included Bank of America Corp., off 3.9%; SunTrust Banks Inc., 3.4%; KeyCorp, 0.8%; Citigroup Inc., 9 cents, to $2.79 a share, and Huntington Bancshares Inc., 9 cents, to $3.91.
Gainers included JPMorgan Chase & Co., up 1%; Wells Fargo & Co., 0.1%; PNC Financial Services Group Inc., 1.9%; U.S. Bancorp, 0.3 %; M&T Bank Corp., 2.1%, and Zions Bancorp., 0.6%.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.53%, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.26 %.
