Financial Stocks Lower but still Outperform (XLF, JPM, WFC, USB, C, GS, STI, FITB, PNC, AIG, HIG)

Published on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 17:05 Written by Paul Oldrini

New York, December 14th (TradersHuddle.com) – The financial stocks outperformed on Wednesday with gains coming from various large and mid cap stocks, while the overall markets were moving lower by over 1%, the Financial Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLF) lost 0.4%.

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) gained 0.70% to $31.51 after falling earlier in the session. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) also buckled the trend, climbing over 0.16%.

However, some blue chip banking stocks continued to slid with losses coming from Citigroup (NYSE:C) down over 3% to $26.05 and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) down by more than 2%.

On the other hand, various regional banking stocks after their recent sharp selloff gained. SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI) rose 0.4% to $16.44 after Bernstein upgraded the stock to Outperform and PNC Financial Services (NYSE:PNC) climbed 0.4%.

Meanwhile, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), the regional bank with presence in the Midwest and Southeast of the U.S., fell 0.9% to $11.88 after it was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.

Insurance stocks were also mixed with Hartford Financial Services (NYSE:HIG) climbing 0.6%, while American International Group (NYSE:AIG) slid 0.2% to $22.78.