Banks are less than $2 away from their pre-financial crisis ATHs $KBE pic.twitter.com/5xit7K9QQo

— Steven Strazza (@sstrazza) January 6, 2022

Today’s Chart of the Day was shared by Steve Strazza (@sstrazza). It’s a chart of the Bank ETF, $KBE, over the past 16-years. The heaviest weighted stocks in this ETF include $VOYA, $SBNY, $STL, $CMA, and $WBS. Steve points out that this Bank ETF is flirting with its pre-Financial crisis highs around $60. The recent strength in Banks and Financials has been driven by rising Treasury yields and a steepening yield curve. In a comment to The Chart Report, Steve said, “The banks are loving the fact that interest rates are moving higher. If you take a look at the 10-year yield, it’s attempting to break out of a nine-month base, with resistance around 1.75%. Rising rates might be painful if you’re overweight Growth/Tech stocks, but cyclical areas of the market like Financials and Energy tend to do well in a rising rate environment.”