Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup All Plunge Over 5% on Thursday

Thursday’s market session delivered a painful reminder that even the strongest financial stocks aren’t immune to broad-based selling pressure. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS | GS Price Prediction), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), and Citigroup (NYSE:C) all crashed Thursday, with the selling accelerating dramatically in the final hour of trading.

Goldman Sachs: Hardest Hit with 5.1% Plunge

Goldman Sachs took the hardest hit, plunging 5.1% from its opening price of $956.17 to close near $907.99. The real carnage came between 3:55 PM and 4:00 PM ET, when volume exploded to 708,549 shares in a single five-minute window. That’s institutional selling, not retail panic. As we discussed in today’s Daily Profit newsletter, Fed rate decisions and Treasury yield movements continue to drive financial sector volatility, and today’s selloff confirms those concerns.

JPMorgan Chase: Institutional Selling Accelerates

JPMorgan followed a similar pattern, dropping from $312.88 at the open to $302.79 by the close, with 5.57 million shares changing hands at 4:00 PM. Banking had been a ‘safe haven’ as investors fled industries they were afraid could be ‘disrupted’ by the rise of AI. However, we’ve seen fears spread to even more sectors like commercial real estate in recent days. This could be adding additional selling pressure across the financial space.

Citigroup: Continuing Weakness

Citigroup wasn’t spared either, falling 5% from its session high of $119.18 to close at $111.47.

The broader market provided little comfort. The S&P 500 (tracked by SPY) declined 1.8% intraday, with the heaviest selling pressure hitting during the same 3:50 PM to 4:10 PM window that hammered the banks. But here’s the key: banks underperformed. While SPY fell less than 2%, Goldman dropped over 5%. That’s not just market weakness. That’s sector-specific selling.

What triggered the exodus? The catalyst appears to be a cascade of analyst downgrades in the asset management sector. BMO Capital Markets lowered its price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $110 to $104 on Thursday afternoon at 2:50 PM ET, joining recent downgrades from Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs itself. When the banks that provide research start cutting price targets on asset managers after earnings misses, it signals broader concerns about fee-based revenue streams and market activity levels.

Sector-Wide Weakness: Regional Banks Follow

The regional banking sector confirmed this wasn’t isolated to the money-center giants. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (NYSEARCA:KRE) dropped 3.8%, falling from $72.27 at the open to $70.72 by the close. That marks the third consecutive day of declines for regional banks, with the ETF now down 2.2% for the week.

The timing matters. All three banks reported earnings in mid-January, so this isn’t a reaction to fresh quarterly results. Goldman beat on earnings but missed on revenue. JPMorgan beat on revenue but missed on earnings. Citigroup missed on both. What we’re seeing now is the market reassessing those results in light of deteriorating sentiment around trading revenues, asset management fees, and the economic outlook.

For bank investors, Thursday’s selloff raises an uncomfortable question: are we watching a temporary pullback or the beginning of a broader rotation out of financials? The concentration of selling volume in the final hour suggests forced liquidation or portfolio rebalancing, not conviction selling. But with JPMorgan down 5.7% year-to-date and Citigroup off 4.3%, the trend is clear. Banks are losing their bid.