GOLDMAN SACHS SHARES END LOWER FOR RECORD 10TH DAY / THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Goldman Sachs shares end lower for record 10th day

Long losing streak is the worst since the investment bank floated in 1999

Peter Wells in New York



© FT


Goldman Sachs shares notched a 10th consecutive decline and their longest losing streak since becoming a public company amid a recent sell-off for financials and concerns about investment banking deal flow.

Down 0.7 per cent at $230.21, the Wall Street stalwart was the outlier among financial stocks on Tuesday, with the KBW bank index up ¼ of 1 per cent and the S&P 500 banks index 0.2 per cent higher. The benchmark S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent higher today.

The 10-day losing streak is Goldman’s longest since it went public in May 1999, according to analysis of Thomson Reuters data by the Financial Times. Moreover, the stock has only closed higher in one of the past 13 sessions.

This decline surpasses the nine-day losing streak it endured back in May 2008. And it also tops the eight consecutive falls recorded at the height of the financial crisis, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America and American International Group was saved by a multibillion dollar government bailout.

Guy Moszkowski, analyst at Autonomous, said the pullback could relate to the recent run up in Goldman shares, which rose 10 per cent between the start of July and the end of August.

“If I look at the charts for Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, or JPMorgan for the last 10 days they don’t really look all that different,” he said.

“That said, the equity market overall has been under pressure and if you look at investment banking transaction flow since the start of the quarter it hasn’t been good. Meanwhile estimates for Goldman Sachs had been going up since late July . . . Maybe investors are concerned that trend will reverse”.

Over the past 10 sessions, Goldman shares have shed 5.1 per cent. That compares with declines of 4.1 per cent for Citigroup, 2.9 per cent for Wells Fargo and 2 per cent for JPMorgan, which are the three-worst performers in the S&P 500 banks index over that period.

Goldman, though, is a member of the S&P 500’s diversified financial index, and is doing better than only E Trade, Franklin Resources and T Rowe Price over the past 10 sessions.

A former Goldman partner raised ethical concerns before leaving the bank in 2015, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing people close to the matter.

Goldman shares are down 9.6 per cent so far in 2018, but down 15.8 per cent from their record closing high in March.


Additional reporting by Laura Noonan