Monica Gerson
Financial stocks are soaring today, led by China’s decision to strengthen the yuan against the US dollar. The world’s third largest economy supported its exports by artificially weakening its currency for about two years.
A rally was witnessed in riskier assets at the start of the week, after China disclosed its plans over the weekend to let yuan appreciate against the US dollar. By 12:52 pm today, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund advanced 0.88%, or 0.13 points, to 14.96.
The components of the financial sector that were most active in terms of volume traded include Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), which rallied 7.41%, Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), which soared 12.51%, American International Group Inc
(NYSE: AIG), which jumped 3.66%, Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC), which rose 1.45% and Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C), which climbed 0.75%, by 1 pm. The common and preferred stock of FRE and FNM is going to be delisted from the NYSE and all other national securities exchanges within a few weeks.
Financial stocks that are trading in negative territory include Lazard Ltd
(NYSE: LAZ), which plunged 1.8%, Visa Inc (NYSE: V), which dropped 1.23%, Hudson City Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ: HCBK), which slipped 0.97% and MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA), which fell 0.6%, by 1:05 pm. Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded LAZ from “buy” to “neutral” today.
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