Barclays: Financial Winners & Losers
NEW YORK (
) -- Financial stocks were mostly lower Wednesday after new economic data stoked fears that the economy will slow signifcantly.
The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit widened 18.8%, to $50 billion, and sent the
Dow Jones
(DOW) - Get Report
falling over 200 points or 2%. The
NASDAQ
(IXIC)
shed 67 points and the
S&P 500
(INX)
also dropped alsmost 30 points by midday.
Financial Select Sector SPDR
(XLF) - Get Report
, a widely-followed exchange traded fund that tracks financial services companies, was down 45 cents to $14.28.
Insurers and European banks were the biggest losers of the day.
Lloyds
(LYG) - Get Report
shares were off by 8% at $4.34 and
Barclays
(BCS) - Get Report
lost almost 9%, trading down at $19.34, after announcing there would be layoffs in its investment bank subsidiary.
Banco Santander
(STD)
shares also slipped over 7% to $12.48.
Insurer
Hartford Financial Services
(HIG) - Get Report
led the declines in the insurance industry with shares dropping 6% to $21.20.
Ambac Financial 's
(ABK)
stock continued its downward trend, with shares trading down 4% to 66 cents each.
Regional banks also suffered some losses.
Susquehanna Bancshares
(SUSQ)
lost 8.41%, with shares trading down to $8.11.
Fifth Third Bancorp
(FITB) - Get Report
shares dropped 53 cents to $12.47, and
State Street
lost almost 5% to $37.30.
Financial winners included
Northern Trust
(NTRS) - Get Report
, which was up 1% to $49.67.
Heritage Financial
(HBOS)
also gained 20 cents to $11.90 after reporting second-quarter earnings leapt 93% to $297,000, or 3 cents a share.
--
Written by Maria Woehr in New York
.
