Financial Stocks Take a Hit After Private-sector Jobs Data Misses Expectations

Financial stocks were getting hit hard in premarket trade Wednesday, after weaker-than-expected private-sector jobs data sent Treasury yields sharply lower. The SPDR Financial ETF fell 1% ahead of the open. Among the sector tracker's more heavily-weighted components, shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. shed 1.3%, of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gave up 1.3%, of Bank of America Corp. slid 1.6%, of Citigroup Inc. dropped 1.3% and of Wells Fargo & Co. lost 1.1%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined 0.023 percentage points to 1.777%. Private-sector employment gains slowed to 156,000 jobs in April from 194,000 in March, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc. Economists had expected an increase of 193,000 in April.