(News Bulletin 247) – Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday under the effect of the decline in the banking sector, while the rating agency Moody’s placed several regional American establishments on negative watch.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones fell 1% to 35,106.9 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.5% to 13,788.9 points.

Moody’s pinned last night the vulnerability of several mid-sized banks, including some well-known names like Bank of New York Mellon or US Bancorp.

The rating agency highlights the pressures these banks face in terms of financing, but also insufficient capital reserves from a regulatory point of view and the risk associated with their exposure to commercial real estate.

Moody’s is following in the footsteps of Fitch, which downgraded the rating assigned to US debt last week, which shows that the issue of debt is back at the center of the debate.

Unsurprisingly, the S&P banking index dropped 1.7%, marking the biggest sectoral drop of the day.

Poor Chinese statistics are also fueling fears of a marked slowdown in global economic growth.

Chinese imports fell 1.1% in the first seven months of the year, suggesting that China’s economic recovery is slipping and global demand is deteriorating.

While the quarterly earnings season is coming to an end, investors have seen a fresh round of quarterly company results.

UPS fell 0.9% after announcing an adjusted EPS of 2.54 dollars for the second quarter of 2023, 22.8% lower than that of the same period in 2022.

Eli Lilly climbed more than 17% after raising its forecast for the current financial year, on the occasion of its quarterly publication.

In the economic chapter, the trade deficit narrowed to 65.5 billion dollars in June, compared to that of 68.3 billion the previous month, according to the Department of Commerce.

Wholesale inventories fell 0.5% in June sequentially in the United States, according to the Commerce Department, after falling 0.4% the previous month.

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