markets

Luke Kawa3/4/25

US financials on track for worst day since Silicon Valley Bank crisis

The last cyclical holdouts are finally crumbling.

US banks are getting crushed, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund down 3.6% as of 10:45 a.m. ET. If that holds, it’ll be the worst session for the fund since March 2023, when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank catalyzed a mini-crisis across regional banks.

All but three of the 73 stocks in the ETF are down; big banks JPMorgan and Bank of America are off more than 5%.

The performance of US financials had been one of the best indicators that the stock market’s drawdown didn’t have much to do with the economy, but rather, was more of a reversal in high-flying momentum stocks. On Friday, XLF ended the week just one penny shy of its all-time high.

But tariffs, which are poised to add another headwind to an economy that’s been losing steam amid high interest rates and waning fiscal support, appear to be the straw that has broken the camel’s back in ushering in this huge decline.

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Gold and silver plunge, suffering their worst losses since the 1980s

Gold and silver suffered their worst losses in decades on Friday, with the iShares Silver Trust falling more than 30% at one point during afternoon trading before recovering slightly.

After recently crossing $5,000 per ounce for the first time, gold's dip was relatively muted compared to silver's rout but nevertheless eye-watering for a traditional safe-haven asset. At one point, gold's intraday dip exceeded 10%, its worst intraday drop since the 1980s and surpassing its declines seen during the 2008 financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

Silver's drop was its worst in percentage terms since 1980.

Gold, and particularly silver, have been pushed higher recently by a storm of retail trader enthusiasm for the metals, as well as more traditional drivers of precious metals such as geopolitical risks and concerns over a fall in the dollar's value due to trade wars and possibly waning central bank independence.

Max Knoblauch4h

Gaming stocks plunge following release of Google’s AI tool that can create playable, copyrighted worlds

Shares of major gaming companies are plunging on Friday as investors get a deeper look at the capabilities of Google’s new generative-AI prototype, Project Genie.

The tool allows users to “create and explore infinitely diverse worlds” with a text or image prompt. Users have already exposed its ability to realistically recreate knockoffs of copyrighted games from Nintendo and other gaming companies.

As users experiment with recreations of game worlds like Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” shares of major gaming companies are sinking. Unity Software, the maker of the popular Unity game engine, is down over 25%, while gaming platform Roblox is down about 9%.

Collision 2019 - Day One

D-Wave Quantum CEO on what’s next after the most eventful month in the company’s history

“If 2025 was the international year of quantum, 2026 is the international year of D-Wave Quantum,” said CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

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Matt Phillips7h

SoFi bests Wall Street’s Q4 expectations, shares rise

SoFi Technologies reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and earnings-per-share numbers Friday before market open, sending the shares higher in the premarket.

The online lender reported:

Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.13 vs. the $0.12 consensus estimate collected by FactSet.
Adjusted revenue of $1.01 billion in Q4 vs. the Wall Street forecast for $977.4 million.
Q1 2026 adjusted net revenue guidance of approximately $1.04 billion vs. the $1.04 billion consensus expectation, according to FactSet.

SoFi shares rallied roughly 70% last year, as the company’s growing menu of financial products — including trading, wealth management, mortgages, credit cards, and cryptocurrency trading — showed signs of gaining traction beyond its traditional base of student borrowers. But the stock has stumbled in early 2026, falling nearly 7% in January through Thursday’s close, though most of that slump seems to have been reversed this morning.

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Matt Phillips7h

Exxon Mobil beats Q4 earnings bogeys, despite softer chemical results

Exxon slid in early trading Friday despite reporting better-than-expected Q4 numbers.

The largest US energy company by revenue reported:

Q4 revenue of $82.31 billion vs. analysts’ $80.63 billion consensus expectation, per FactSet.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.71 vs. the $1.70 analysts predicted, according to FactSet.
Global production of 4.99 million oil-equivalent barrels per day vs. a 4.84 million expectation on Wall Street.

Analysts at RBC Capital spotlighted weaker margins in its chemical division, which is one factor that could be weighing on sentiment. Writing about the division’s earnings, they noted:

“Chemicals products results were particularly weak (-$11m vs consensus +$271m). Notably, this is the first negative result for XOM’s chemicals product division since 4Q19, and highlights the severity of the chemicals downturn the industry is facing.”

Low oil prices have dogged sales and profits at oil giants like Exxon over the last year.

But the recent surge in tensions between the US and oil-rich nations like Venezuela and Iran have contributed to rising oil prices in early 2026, with benchmark US crude oil up roughly 12% since the start of the year.

This morning’s immediate reaction might just be traders taking some of the air out of the stock — Exxon was up 17% for the year through Thursday’s close, compared to a 1.8% gain for the S&P 500.

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