U.S. equity markets traded unevenly Sunday afternoon, in the aftermath of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank SIVB, -60.41% on Friday, which has cast a pall over the banking sector and damaged market sentiment. Futures for the Dow YM00, +0.88% were off 70 points or 0.2%, those for the S&P 500 ES00, +1.26% were virtually unchanged, while those for the Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, +1.35% were about 0.3%.
Over the weekend, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was holding an auction for the assets of failed SVB Financial Group Capital, the parent of Silicon Valley Bank of California, according to reports. Discussions also were said to be underway involving the Federal Reserve to possibly create a fund to protect uninsured depositors.
Investors are assessing the SVB bank failure to see if it complicates the Fed’s plans to raise interest rates further and potentially faster than previously expected in its bid to tamp down inflation. SVB was closed by California regulators on Friday, in the second-largest in U.S. history, and taken over by the FDIC.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.07% saw a 4.6% weekly fall, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.76% declined 4.7%. Investors sold stocks but piled into safe-haven U.S. Treasurys TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.705%, prompting a sharp retreat in yields, which move opposite to prices.