Banks Back on the Road to Recovery

Banks have been deeply out of favor for a long time. In fact, you can see in the chart below just how poorly the S&P 500 Financials Index has performed compared with the rest of the index in this century. Bank stocks had barely started showing signs of life after a lost decade since the great financial crisis when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The Fed quickly sprang into action and brought the federal funds rate back to the floor after barely taking it halfway up to the pre-2008 level. Economic activity shut down and millions lost their jobs. Banks paid a price yet again, as their stocks were one of the worst hit when the pandemic brought the world to a grinding halt in 2020.

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