Page 5 - Arkets Wrap News Today

US equities fell the most in a month on Tuesday as concerns over the banking sector's health cropped up again.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are headed for their worst trading week since March.

Mega-cap tech companies like Alphabet and Amazon are on deck to report quarterly results next week.

The inflation report should give investors a better idea if the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates again at its May FOMC meeting.

The VIX fell below 19 on Monday, marking its seventh consecutive daily decline as rate fears and banking jitters recede.

Morgan Stanley's top strategist said the fallout in the banking sector starts what's likely to be the "vicious" end to the bear market in stocks.

Mega-cap tech stocks became the new safety trade this week and helped power the Nasdaq 100 to its best weekly return since November.

Elsewhere, oil prices slid this week as the outlook for further monetary tightening stoked recession fears and demand concerns.

Bond yields soared on Friday after the January jobs report showed payroll gains of 517,000 and the unemployment rate at a 53-year low.

With about half of S&P 500 companies having reported fourth-quarter earnings, 70% of those companies beat profit estimates by a median of 6%.