Bank stocks struggled to stay in positive territory Wednesday before falling slightly on a day of light summertime volume.
The KBW Bank Index closed down 0.16%, but gainers as well as decliners populated the index. The broader market indexes rose, the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.66% and the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.69%.
Among the gainers: Wells Fargo & Co., up 1%; U.S. Bancorp, 0.3%; SunTrust Banks Inc., 0.7%; Regions Financial Corp., 1.3%, and Zions Bancorp., 1.8%.
Decliners included JPMorgan Chase & Co., off 0.7%; Bank of America Corp., 0.9%; PNC Financial Services Group Inc., 0.9%; BB&T Corp., 0.2%; Capital One Financial Corp., 2.2%, and Fifth Third Bancorp, 0.8%.
The broader markets were lifted by a rise in energy stocks after the government said that the country's oil inventories fell more than 8 million barrels last week.