Another bank earnings season is coming upon us, and no one is feeling too excited. Yet excitement isn’t what makes stocks like
Citizens Financial Group
and
M&T Bank
attractive.
Make no mistake, banks have been a lousy investment this year, just as so much else has. The
SPDR S&P Bank
exchange-traded fund (ticker: KBE) has dropped 16.5% in 2022, faring only slightly better than the
S&P 500
which has fallen 23.6%. But the near symmetry in performance is even more shocking given the expectations heading into 2022. Consumers and businesses were expected to resume borrowing after more than a year of pandemic stimulus buoyed their cash piles. Banks were expected to earn more on those loans as the Fed lifted interest rates five times this year from a range of near-zero to 3.25%. It should have been heady times for the out-of-favor sector.
