JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon acknowledged the tragedy of bloodshed in Israel and said bank employees remained safe over the weekend, as bank stocks fell more deeply into the red than the broad market on Monday.
The comments came after a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel launched on Saturday raised geopolitical alarms and pushed equity prices down.
“This past weekend’s attack on Israel and its people and the resulting war and bloodshed are a terrible tragedy,” Dimon said in an internal memo on Sunday seen by MarketWatch. “We stand with our employees, their families and the people of Israel during this time of great suffering and loss.”
The bank remains grateful that all of its employees in the country and those traveling in the region had been confirmed safe on Sunday, he said.
The bank employs 200 people in Israel, with offices in Tel Aviv.
“The human cost of wars and terrorism are enormous, with too many lives lost and changed forever,” Dimon said.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLF
fell 0.8%, the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index
BKX
subtracted 1.2% and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF
KRE
lost 1%.
Among individual names, JPMorgan Chase
JPM,
dropped by 0.9%, Bank of America Corp.
BAC,
fell 1%, Wells Fargo & Co.
WFC,
dropped by 1.1%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
GS,
dropped by 1.1%, Citigroup
C,
fell 1% and Morgan Stanley
MS,
lost 1.4%.
These six megabanks kick off the third-quarter earnings season on Friday, with updates from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
dropped 0.2% and the S&P 500
SPX
fell down by 0.3%, as investors edged away from equities and other assets perceived as risky in favor of traditional havens.
The U.S. Treasury market is closed for Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Treasury futures
TY00,
are indicating falling benchmark yields.
Also read: September jobs report sets stage for regional-bank-stock underperfomance as yields resume run-up
Elsewhere in the banking sector on Monday, Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision is giving a speech on bank regulation at the American Banks Association meeting in Nashville.
Bank regulators have proposed stricter capital requirements for larger regional banks of more than $100 billion in assets as part of the U.S.’s so-called Basel III endgame for banking reforms aimed at strengthening the global financial system.
Also read: Democrats join GOP, banks in pushing back on proposed bank capital rules
Bill Watts contributed to this report.
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