This Week’s Big Bank Earnings Give Clues About the Economy
By Erik Sherman July 15, 2019
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, according to Freud. But bank earnings announcements are always about more than their stocks alone.
That’s why Wall Street anxiously watched Citigroup’s earnings report Monday morning. Even though profits and revenue beat estimates, shares were down about 0.4% as of midday.
Bank stocks are considered bellweathers, and parsing the details contained within quarterly earnings reports can provide clues about where the broader economy is heading. “We spend a lot of time evaluating the health of bank stocks,” said Marc Rappaport, CEO of DCM Advisors, “as it’s one way to take the temperature of the economy.”