Bank stocks rally following earnings data, tech under pressure

Yahoo Finance Live’s Brad Smith breaks down how stocks are trading following the opening bell on Friday.

Video Transcript

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BRIAN SOZZI: And there we have that opening bell on Wall Street as the big bank earnings season kicks off. We see the "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

BRAD SMITH: Oh, with more enthusiastic. Come on, more enthusiasm.

BRIAN SOZZI: It's bank earnings season, Brad. I get it. But I'm more worried about JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon and the storm clouds and potential expense cuts. It's just-- I don't know.

BRAD SMITH: It's all marvelous.

BRIAN SOZZI: It's just how--

BRAD SMITH: If you ask the CEOs--

BRIAN SOZZI: It's just how I'm wired, Brad. Well, look, we had a lot to take in this morning here. We had the big bank earnings. We had a really bad retail sales report. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But that was a really ugly retail sales report. We had, I would say, some more hawkish commentary out of the Fed's Waller. We have that story now on the Yahoo Finance homepage. Lots for markets to digest.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, there is. And so I'm giving our viewers a look at the past four days, just to kind of get a gauge of how we were trending coming into this. And ultimately, with some of today's activity, we're about as flat as it gets. Just barely to the downside right now for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, only about 25 points in a move there. So we'll continue to watch that. But over the past four days, still net higher by about 1.2%.

For the NASDAQ Composite, you're seeing that lower here out of the gate. That's down by about 3/10 of a percent, 4/10 if you want to round off at home and be a Grinch. But over the past four days, still net positive by about 3/10 of a percent. And S&P 500, you're seeing that in the green. That's up by about 8/10 of a percent right now over the past four days. However, here today, it's only higher by about 1/10 of a percent. We'll be generous and round that off too.

Let's take a look at some sector activity, just to see where things are opening up on a industry or sector basis, if you will. And as there's been a-- ooh, there we go. A lot of financial activity this morning and banks starting to report and really kicking off this earnings season. Financials, XLF, you're seeing that higher by about 1 and 1/4%. So some beneficiary action there for the overall sector.

But bringing up the caboose here, you've got utilities. That's down by about 1.1% out of the gate this morning. But overall, as we mentioned, the S&P 500 down by about 1/10 of a percent. So about as split as you could get for, of course, an 11 sector basis there. But as we'll continue to track that as we move on throughout the rest of today's trading session, keep a close eye on technology here, folks. Why? Because you've got a lot of red on the screen there.

Bringing up the caboose, we'll dive into some of the EV manufacturers later on. Rivian and Lucid, though, out of the gate this morning, you're seeing both of those lower as of right now. I clicked on them both. So I'm glad that they both pulled up. That just means the YFi Interactive is active. And Fastenal, let's take a look at that. That is the biggest gainer here on the day out of the gate. It wouldn't pull up. That's OK. We don't have time anyway. Right now, it's up by about 1.2% and the leaders in the NASDAQ 100.

BRIAN SOZZI: Hey, that Rivian getting short-circuited there, Brad, on Piper Sandler downgrade. We'll have more on that, really, debacle of just a company coming up.