Asia markets trade mixed after Wall Street’s banks jump on stress test results

Financial stocks gained on Thursday, contributing to the Dow Jones Industrial Averages‘ more than 100-point rise and a 1.1% increase in the S&P 500 financials sector.

The gains stemmed from big bank stocks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. Shares rose more than 2% after the lenders passed the Federal Reserve’s annual stress test. Other winners in the financial sector included Visa, M&T Bank, Comerica and Charles Schwab, last up about 2% each.

Energy and materials stocks also rose lifting the respective S&P sectors about 0.7% each. Some winners up more than 1% included Steel Dynamics, Mosaic, EQT Corp, Coterra Energy and Marathon Oil.

— Samantha Subin

Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said Thursday he’s not on the same page as his fellow central bankers who have indicated further interest rate hikes likely will be needed to bring down inflation.

“In my view, it is less certain that we need to keep hiking the policy interest rate in the immediate term, lest we risk tightening too much and draining too much momentum from the economy,” Bostic said in prepared remarks for a speech in Dublin, Ireland.

Citing a variety of surveys and indicators, Bostic said he thinks inflation is well on its way back to the Fed’s 2% target “and in a way that may well be sustainable.”

A nonvoting member this year of the Federal Open Market Committee, Bostic said that while he doesn’t foresee future rate increases, he also doesn’t expect any cuts either this year or in 2024.

—Jeff Cox

A new white paper from the Federal Reserve argues that elevated tax and interest rates could translate into “bleak” 2% annual returns for the stock market.

“The boost to profits and valuations from ever-declining interest and corporate tax rates is unlikely to continue, indicating significantly lower profit growth and stock returns in the future,” Michael Smolyansky writes in the paper titled “End of an era: The coming long-run slowdown in corporate profit growth and stock returns.”

A principal economist for the central bank, Smolyansky said most of the market’s returns can be traced to low interest rates and taxes that likely won’t be around again for a while.

— Jeff Cox