Financials Down on Sector Rotation -- Financials Roundup

Banks, lenders and other financial companies ticked down as traders cashed out of one of the best performing sectors of the year, rotating into weaker areas such as utilities. Steadily rising interest rates and promises of further increases in 2018 led to a surge in investment in banks, lenders and insurers this year. The price of bitcoin has stabilized in recent sessions around $15,000, but the prices of rival crypto currencies have rallied. Ripple, whose designers aim to strike up partnerships with financial institutions, surged to become the second largest crypto-currency by market capitalization. Goldman Sachs warned that tax legislation could reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by about $5 billion, mainly due to the newly enacted repatriation tax for cash and assets held overseas.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 29, 2017 16:19 ET (21:19 GMT)