we saw the kbw index go shooting up.t week, and absently massive week for the banking sector in the united states, kicking off first-quarter earnings season. jp morgan morgan, goldman sachs, wells fargo all announcing results wednesday. , gil doolittle is here with m -- abigail doolittle is here with what we should watch. abigail: earnings season kicking into gear next week. it has been a very bullish year so far overall for stocks. the s&p 500 up about 9.1%, but the banks really outperforming. take a look at the s&p 500 financial sector, up 18%. the kbw bank index up a stunning 25% in just one quarter. of course, this has everything to do with the historic backup and yields we have seen. the 10 year yield right now up 75 basis points off of the highs, but the idea is this will flow right to the bottom line for the banks, rising net interest income, so this is a very bullish dynamic for the banks. another factor, because of all the liquidity in the system, is trading volumes. the leverage being talked about. if you go ba

let's finish on this, the kbw index.s had a great year so far. 10 year yield in line with that story. we have been talking about this. the hot cpi print earlier this week, a little harder than expected, and yields with the other way, lower. 1.6130. we stalled out. i wonder what this means? tom: we will have to see on the bank rally. citigroup at 8:00. conversation went brian moynihan later as well. right now my conversation of the day with thomas miss showed from keefe bruyette & woods. he knows you walk into a baker's office and you start to talk about consolidation. you guys invented it in 1962, tucker hampton and the merger of kbw. you guys literally invented the modern consolidation with the bank of new england. are we going to see a redux in this bank boom of consolidation? thomas: great memory. you do remember a long way back. we did work on those deals for bank of new england. the industry has been consolidating for many decades. the question is what is the pace? consolidation is an important theme and we think it

the kbw bank index getting hit pretty hard today. it still had a pretty stellar year.that rotation into cyclicals and a steepening yield curve. it is those yields weighing on that sector today. we are down some nine basis points after that retail data surprise. it is very much that as well as concern over loan demand weighing on banks of america. amanda: we did hear from the banks. decent numbers at citigroup. included news that it would exit 13 markets with its retail operations. those are markets across asia, europe, the middle east and africa. transformation is more strategic and fundamental. we are taking a soup to nuts approach looking forward rather than backward obviously that's a big step to exit those retail markets. the implication is that there may be other things that happen for citigroup what's the market thinking about what it's hearing? >> their liking what jane fraser has to offer so far. this is her first call as ceo of this bank. consumer businesses actually fell the most. more than at wells fargo and more than at jp morgan. for jane fraser to hone in

the kbw bank index, taking a bit of a hit. it is now down the better part of 1%.s for what is going on and other asset classes, we were seeing selling in the treasury market with stocks taking a leg lower. right now we are essentially flat on the u.s. 10 year yields, which sits at 1.55%. we are getting a stronger dollar today. up against potentially everything in the g10 space. including the euro after the ecb decision. crude has been fluctuating between gains and losses. now that we have a bit of a more risk off tone, crude is lower. around 61.28 dollars a barrel on wti. as for some more idiosyncratic stories in the equity market, it's of course earnings season on top of all of that. we have a number of movers on the back of earnings. equifax is the outperformer and the s&p 500 today after its first quarter results. it easily beat expectations, boosting guidance for the top and bottom lines. shares up 17% as a result. at&t, also higher by 4%. also beating expectations. profit driven by gains. to the downside, las vegas, the casino operator down by 2% after revenu

and see the dollar index tracking downwards in a slow melting fashion and finally the banking index kbwart. won't find a higher close than right now and that's key considering what banks are considered to be undervalued still and the index follows interest rates morgan, back the you. >> rick, thank you. >>> up next, three other stories you might have missed. a rocket race, a new ginamg chair and memorabilia. "power lunch" is back in two hey, it's good to see you. the company we've trusted to keep us working remotely, is the same company we'll trust to bring us back together. cisco. the bridge to possible. for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin we see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time. at emerson, our automation software is empowering pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their production of critical vaccinations for the world. emerson. consider it solved. >>> welcome back small launch startup rocket lab attempting to bring

the kbw bank index down fractionally on the week. that has every thing to do with yields, despite all of the strong reports from the big banks. yields down eight points on the 10 year yield, the most since december. that is helping out the nasdaq 100 because valuation concerns go away when the banking index is down. interesting week, but overall, risk on. alix: thanks a lot. breaking news, moderna is going to reduce vaccine deliveries to the u.k. and canada in april. so one of the mrna vaccines that are currently available will be reduced in the u.k. and canada in april. younger cohorts are going to be able to get moderna over in the u.k. let's stay with the vaccine story and the eu. they will probably not be redoing -- not be renewing vaccine contracts with astrazeneca and j&j. joining us now, sam fazeli, who leads our pharma coverage for bloomberg intelligence. is this a good idea to not renew these contracts potentially? sam: well, at the end of the day , countries have to make decisions on a one by one basis as to how they feel a

alix: joining us is andrew stimpson, head of european banks research at kbw, part of steeple.we seen the worst of the arcade goes -- of the archegos hit? andrew: we have seen the worst. credit suisse will be the worst. credit suisse and ubs sing the last tale of the losses come through, partly in the second quarter. the really big bit that needs to come next is why did this happen, how did this happen? guy: my colleague put it beautifully in a piece she wrote for bloomberg opinion earlier on. clients need to be asking themselves how does a single client event and up doing more damage than the pandemic. however we in this situation? andrew: i wish i could answer that question. i'm sure a lot of people involved in making the rules after the financial crisis will be asking the same question. the banks can take some loss on collateral they collect when it is a margin call. it is not super unusual. for stocks, a lot of these stocks have been flat here to date, they are even down that much. they have taken such a huge amount of leverage and not be flexible on the margin in a systema

. >>> american express, kbw, raising its price target to 172.ch upgraded the stock. said the thing is going to outperform. okay, but that thing has been absolutely clobbered in recent weeks because of all kinds of internal turmoil within the market. viacom up 45. that company says they're going higher. >>> amazon's jeff bezos weighing in on president biden's infrastructure spending plan. all right, ash, what is jeff bezos saying? ashley: well it's interesting. when you're the richest person on earth i guess you can afford some spare cash for extra taxes apparently so this is what jeff bezos actually said. quote, we support the biden administration's focus on making bold investments in american infrastructure. we recognize this investment will require concessions from all sides, both on the specifics of what's included as well as how it gets paid for. assuming that he is supportive of the rise in corporate taxes, because that is what is being presented as, to pay for this project. so basically without actually saying it, bezos seems okay with a h