Office real estate loan concerns drag down U.S. banks.
Shares of large and mid-sized US banks, including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, sharply underperformed the broader market due to concerns about potential losses from office real estate loans. Executives from Wells Fargo and Blackstone spoke about the "unprecedented weakness" in older office buildings, causing investors to worry about the banks' exposure to commercial real estate loans. The S&P 500 Banks Index closed down 2.0%, while the benchmark S&P 500 Index fell 0.6%.