Stocks open higher, financials sector sees gains on bank earnings
Stocks open Friday higher as the financial sector (XLF) sees a small uptick after Big Banks report their third-quarter earnings. Yahoo Finance's Diane King Hall reports from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to give a market break down after the opening bell, noting technical glitches causing a problem for NYSE order flows in early trading.
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Video Transcript
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SEANA SMITH: Just at the opening bell on Wall Street, let's do a quick check of the markets. We're looking at gains across the board for the major averages a minute here into the trading day. Diane King Hall, right behind us on the floor with a closer look at some of the moves. Diane.
DIANE KING HALL: Hey, guys. Well, Wall Street's off to the races this morning after a downbeat day yesterday. But what's interesting to note, there was some skittishness on the floor heading into this bell because there was some kind of issue that was causing a problem with order flow coming only here into the New York Stock Exchange. It's unclear if it was a technical glitch. It was resolved before the bell so that order flow could come through to the floor.
And you think about the day. Today is Friday the 13th. So are there any kind of spooky vibes around that, if you will? But if history is a guide, the S&P 500 does typically post a gain on Friday the 13th. It is usually a small gain. It's usually up about a tenth of a percent.
As for where we stand now, as you mentioned, we are off to the races, stocks on the plus side. You have investors putting that Thursday in the rear view mirror, looking to put a pin in what's been an upbeat week and more of an upbeat month when you compare it to the prior couple of months on Wall Street. You know, but investors are expecting the S&P 500 to be pretty range-bound for the duration of this month, really reading the tea leaves on where these earnings are.
When you look at a couple of the sectors that are in focus, of course, a leader has been the tech sector. We're looking at XLK. That's been up for the week, actually, so on track to post gains a little over 2% for the week, so making marginal gains when you compare it to the broader market.
Another area I'm looking at, financials. That's been in focus, of course. We have the big banks reporting their earnings-- I know you guys have talked about them all morning-- from Wells Fargo, which rang the bell today, to JP Morgan Chase. Taking a look at the action for the week, XLF up for the week, up about 2% as well.
So investors really in kind of a-- we're seeing a little bit of incremental buying action here, especially when you compare it to the challenges and concerns in the bond market and over financials in general. Is the worst of the challenges we've seen behind us this year, or is there more pain to come, especially as I know you all have talked about the issues with loan loss provisions and how those will factor in how the financials are doing? So I'll leave it there and send it back to you guys.
SEANA SMITH: All right, Diane, thanks so much for a closer look here at some of the trends that we're seeing at the open.
