U.S. equity markets rose in the second quarter of 2013 but gave up some ground in June after increasing for seven straight months, the longest winning streak since 2009. The June decline was driven in part to comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed might scale back its monthly asset purchases later this year and possibly end them in mid-2014. The strongest gainers during the quarter were generally financials and consumer discretionary stocks, which rose amid increasing consumer optimism. While the Fed’s monetary stance remains essentially unchanged, the suggestion that changes may be coming unnerved the financial markets in June.
The banking sector continues to face elevated regulatory pressures and continued pressure on net interest margins in today’s low interest rate environment, although interest rates have shown signs of increasing due to the Fed’s comments on scaling back asset purchases. The SNL U.S. Bank Index increased by 8.7% during the second quarter of 2013 after increasing by 9.8% during the first quarter while posting a year-over-year gain of 38.2%.
For more information on regional bank stock multiples see details below.
More information regarding nationwide M&A activity can be found here.