Indexes Finish Higher Amid Banking Chaos

“LUKE, WE'RE GONNA HAVE COMPANY!" Han Solo

Good evening:

Turmoil in the banking sector has left many investors with flashbacks to 2008’s GFC and even the 1980s savings and loan crisis, though some–including our Head of Research, Tom Lee–attribute this to reflexive human nature rather than any significant similarities to those historic events. Nevertheless, fallout from last week’s rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank $SIVB spread throughout global markets this week, with Credit Suisse’s separate issues (problematic accounting among them) adding to the uncertainty. 

Politically, $SIVB has generated a bipartisan perspective in Congress–aimed at the Fed. Lawmakers from both parties are questioning why the Fed failed to see trouble at the failed bank earlier or act to prevent it, with some noting that until March 10, SIVB CEO Greg Becker sat on the board of the San Francisco Fed. Still, our Washington Policy Strategist, Tom Block, said that while Congress will certainly respond to recent banking news, the debt-ceiling debate remains top-of-mind in Washington, D.C.