Stocks trade mixed at the open, crypto sees gains

Yahoo Finance Live’s Brad Smith breaks down how stocks are trading following the opening bell on Monday.

Video transcript

- So as we open up, it looks like we've got the Dow and the S&P in the green. The NASDAQ very slightly in the red. But given the sort of drama that we saw over the weekend, Brad, relatively muted moves.

- It is, and we've turned mixed here for the major averages out of the gate. We saw that, a little bit of it, coming into play with the NASDAQ just before the start of today's trading activity. Take a look at the Dow, though. Up right now by about 4/10 of a percent. I wanted to put this all in context. Over the past five days, fractionally higher by about 1/2 a percent. So keep a close eye on that as we move forward throughout the rest of this week.

The NASDAQ Composite over the past five days, as I was talking about and we'll get into in a hot second here, the technology sector has been doing well over the past five days. S&P XLK up by about 6% over that course of time. And so, the NASDAQ holding on to net gains, as it is a tech-heavy index. But here out of the gate, it is lower by about a 1/2 of a percent. So taking a bit of a breather.

The S&P 500 past five days up by about 1.7%. And then here this morning out of the gate, you're seeing it up 1/10 of a percent. Things I do want to point out here, even coming into the start of today's trading activity, I'll give you a brief look at the 11 S&P 500 sectors. Largely in positive territory. It looks like 9 out of 11 components in that 11-sector makeup there are in positive territory, but you do see discretionary and technology lower here on the day.

Also, want to take a look at crypto here because crypto has been ripping to the upside, at least over the past five days in this movement that we've been tracking with some of the banking turmoil that's ensued. Bitcoin has been up by about 12% over the past five days. You're seeing that cross and hold above 28,000. So that is something to keep in mind with some of the larger, kind of more volatile and risky assets. Even when crypto moves makes a move like this, that is worthy of tracking here. Ether also up by about 6% over that period of time. But here, down this morning just a little bit. So I'll put this back on intraday, just so folks aren't like losing.

- Yeah. I mean, it's really interesting because it felt like for a long while there, crypto had lost that haven status that it has had in fits and starts, right? I mean, it's referred to by its proponents as digital gold, right? And gold certainly catches a bid. Typically when people are worried about the wider world, right? Bitcoin doesn't as consistently. So it's interesting to see that coming back. We continue to watch banks as well. I mean, I mentioned we've been looking at the regional banks, of course. And as you look at the regional banks, I mean, there's a lot more green on that screen there today, Brad.

- Yeah, absolutely, and just kind of putting this on, we'll rank these in order of the biggest moves that we're seeing there. Of course, First Republic, as we were just mentioning, that's still the largest move to the downside. That's lower by about 18% out of the gate this morning, but you are seeing considerable moving. Pack West Bancorp, that's moving higher by about 18%.

So an entire absolute value move to the upside there that it's seeing, as compared to First Republic. But they're largely a larger comeback that we're seeing among some of these regional banks. I'd mentioned PNC earlier as well, and here we see that move. And that's up by about 2.7%. Perhaps, a little bit biased being that I'm from Pennsylvania and it's a Pennsylvania bank.

- And what about the big banks too? Because originally, there was some concern, right, that there would be spillover, particularly less so it feels like from the regional bank stuff in the US. It felt like that the Credit Suisse situation was maybe more alarming to large bank-holders. Yeah, UBS, what a comeback, right? It was down earlier. Now, it's trading higher.

And the company saying that this was an emergency rescue of Credit Suisse, but they want to make the most of it. It is going to really expand its business and make it even more dominant within Switzerland, right? Which the regulators normally, in normal times, would not have allowed that kind of acquisition. But now at this time, they are. But the other banks, the US banks are holding up pretty well also.

- Yeah. While we've got UBS pulled up here, and I'll kind of put this on a year-to-date view just so you could see kind of this move that's taking place more broadly. Here today, it's still holding onto gains by about 3.8%. But you're right, the move is all about what has been announced over the weekend here in this emergency deal that's taking place.

And the UBS Chief Executive Officer had said that bringing UBS and Credit Suisse together, Swiss, Suisse, however you're pronouncing it at home, pronounce it acquired. Credit Suisse together is going to build on UBS's strengths and further enhance their ability to kind of serve their clients globally, deepen their best in class capabilities there as well.

And it also gives them some broader international growth ambitions too. So UBS, typically on the announcement of a deal or an acquisition, you would see that company's shares moving lower, kind of pricing in the amount of capital that's going out the door. But given that this was a steel of a deal, essentially.

- Well, and speaking of which, you got Credit Suisse shares up there too, I think.

- Yeah.

- Just to maybe they're on there somewhere?

- Yeah. Here we go. Down 48% right now in year-to-date. You're seeing that move as well here. As we had mentioned, already had moved and hit some of its all-time time lows, and 99% off of its all-time highs as well.

- Yeah. Yeah. As you said, UBS getting a big discount.