The anti-risk US Dollar and Japanese Yen outperformed their major counterparts on Tuesday amid a spike in financial market volatility as investors turned risk-averse and sought shelter. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite sank -1%, -1.6%, and -1.9%, respectively. The VIX market ‘fear gauge’ surged 11.08%. Further gains might hint at breaking a stock sector diversification strategy.
Declines on Wall Street accelerated shortly in the aftermath of an earnings report from First Republic Bank (FRC). While beating expectations, the troubled regional bank reported deposits plunging 36% y/y. To help shore up assets, FRC announced that it is exploring a $100 billion asset sale. Still, investors did not take this news kindly, punishing the stock as the share price plunged almost 50%.
