NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Financial stocks capped off a strong week Friday, riding high on news that European Union leaders have taken concrete steps to ease bailout restrictions and appoint a single banking regulator, in moves widely seen as a precursor to further relief for crisis-stricken states.
Bank of America Corp. (US:BAC) led gainers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average(US:DJIA), up 5.7%, putting it on track to be the best performing stock in the Dow for the first half of this year with a 44% gain.
In the S&P 500 Index, Morgan Stanley(US:MS) rallied in the final hour of trading to end the day with a 5.2% gain. Citigroup (US:C), which opened the session in the lead, notched a 3.9% increase at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (US:GS) wasn’t far behind, edging up 2.5%.
Only J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (US:JPM) declined, its shares retreating 0.4% a day after the New York Times reported that the bank’s trading loss could amount to as much as $8 to $9 billion, much more than previously thought. Read more on the J.P. Morgan trading loss.
On Friday, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said they would release the liquidation plans that major banks were required by the Dodd-Frank Act to write in the event of bankruptcy — known as “living wills” — on Tuesday.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (US:XLF), which tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500(US:SPX), added 2.6%. The KBW Bank Index (US:BKX), which tracks the 24 leading U.S. banks, rose 2.7%.
Other gainers of note in the S&P 500 included E-Trade Financial Corp.(US:ETFC), which held strong to its 5.9% gain, and insurer MetLife Inc.(US:MET), which climbed 4.6%.
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