Economics
Bonus-Boosting Rally in U.S. Bank Stocks Seen Fading
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Shares of U.S. financial firms just staged their biggest annual rally since 1997, creating a bonanza for Wall Street employees who received bonuses in deferred stock. The new year doesn’t hold the same promise.
The KBW Bank Index of 24 lenders increased 35 percent in 2013, the most in 16 years, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Capital Markets Index of 13 securities firms and asset managers surged 49 percent, the most on record. Analysts tracked by Bloomberg predict shares of those companies will slip an average of 0.2 percent in 2014.