Wall Street collapses in fear of a deepening banking crisis

March 24 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s major indexes fell on Friday as fears of a widening banking crisis deterred investors from risky assets, despite efforts by authorities to calm markets.

Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced plans by the US authorities to take action to ensure the safety of deposits in the face of banking turmoil.

Shares of the largest American banks JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo and Bank of America lost their value from 1.74% to 2.31%.

Regional creditors First Republic Bank and Truist Financial Corp fell 1.36% and 1.6%, while PacWest Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp rose 2.39% and 1.76%, respectively.

European banks also came under pressure after reports from US authorities investigating the situation of Credit Suisse and UBS. US-listed lenders’ shares fell 4.54% and 3.65%.

Deutsche Bank US shares fell 7.46% after the bank’s credit default swaps rose to a four-year high.

Traders are now leaning towards the Fed pausing interest rate hikes in May after the regulator signaled caution amid banking turmoil.

The Atlanta and St. Louis, Raphael Bostic and James Bullard said bringing inflation down is the central bank’s priority despite tensions in the banking sector.

US Commerce Department data on Friday showed that domestic durable goods orders fell 1.0% in February from the previous month, while analysts expected an increase of 0.6%.

The Dow Jones Index fell 0.73% to 31,871.27 points at 5:23 p.m. Moscow time, the S&P 500 fell 0.69% to 3,921.51 points, and the Nasdaq fell 0.68% to 11,706.76 points.

Activision Blizzard shares rose 6% after the UK competition authority dropped a number of claims over a deal with Microsoft.

The original message in English is available under the code: (Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas)