It was a bearish day for bank stocks, with the KBW Bank Index falling 0.97%. Its losses at midday were more than twice that, though, before it recovered late in the afternoon along with the broader market.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.51% and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.21%.
Fifth Third Bancorp dropped 3.86%, the most of any component of the bank index, after Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz downgraded the stock to "hold." Fifth Third's gains so far this year have exhausted most of the stock's current potential, Horowitz wrote to clients, and investors would be better off looking to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.
B of A was one of the few banks to gain, rising 1.35%. Wells Fargo & Co. dropped 0.8% and Citigroup Inc. tumbled 1.74%. JPMorgan Chase fell 0.51% on its annual investor day, at which it lowered its expectations for its return on equity this year to 17% from 20%.
