Argentine banks rise, bitcoin miners fall in earnings-packed week: financials roundup

It was an eventful week for financial stocks, from a flurry of corporate earnings reports pouring in to key jobs data that drove down interest rates.

All things considered, financial stocks (with market cap over $2B) closed out the week ended May 3 in the red, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) drifting down 0.6%, compared with the S&P 500’s 0.6% gain.

Rising the most of any financial stock, New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) jumped 18.9% this past week after the lender that received a $1B capital infusion from an investor group led by Steven Mnuchin reported Q1 earnings and introduced medium-term financial targets. Piper Sandler analyst Mark Fitzgibbon subsequently upgraded NYCB after the bank’s management outlined its roadmap to restore profitability.

From there, Argentine lenders Banco Macro (NYSE:BMA), BBVA Argentina (NYSE:BBAR) and Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) climbed 17.2%, 13.4% and 11.8%, respectively, as the country’s peso strengthened against the U.S. dollar; and

Bread Financial Holdings (NYSE:BFH) gapped up 10.4% as KBW’s Sanjay Sakhrani upgraded the credit card lender.

For the five biggest financial losers, CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), which during the week posted its

bitcoin (BTC-USD) production numbers, took the lead, dropping 16%;

Fellow bitcoin (BTC-USD) miner Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) shed 12.7% as bitcoin itself recorded a choppy week. Do note that Riot delivered on Wednesday record quarterly earnings in Q1 2024.

Fintech-focused lender SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) slid 11.6% after issuing Q2 guidance that fell short of the average analyst estimate;

Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG), having posted mixed Q1 results, retreated 11%; and

Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA), another BTC miner that put out production metrics, fell 9.8%.