FirstFT: Sell-off wipes $52bn from top US banks’ market value

Yesterday saw the biggest one-day sell-off in financial stocks since the early months of the pandemic, with more than $52bn wiped off the top four US banks by assets.

We also have a scoop on Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven who are both set to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank as they seek to free themselves from western sanctions.

A number of important items in the day ahead:

• Economic data: US jobs growth is expected to slow when February numbers come out. The UK has trade and GDP figures for January, while Germany releases its consumer price index for last month.

• Green subsidies: Ursula von der Leyen will meet Joe Biden to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act after the EU announced plans to match US subsidies.

• UK-France: Rishi Sunak will seek French counterpart Emmanuel Macron’s help to curb Channel crossings at their first bilateral summit in five years.

• Results: French retailer Casino reports full-year results after announcing a new deal that may help the heavily indebted group. Berkeley Group and Robert Walters also report.

Thank you for reading FirstFT. Have a great weekend.

Today’s top news

1. Investors wiped $52.4bn off the market value of the four largest US banks by assets yesterday in a sell-off that started with difficulties at Silicon Valley Bank. The steep losses at the small, tech-focused lender shifted attention to risks in bond portfolios held by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

2. The US has issued sanctions on five Chinese companies for supplying parts for Iranian drones used to attack oil tankers and exported to Russia for its war on Ukraine. Read the full story.

3. EXCLUSIVE: Apple and partner Foxconn successfully lobbied for looser labour laws in the Indian state of Karnataka, allowing two-shift production to take place. Read how this will pave the way for making iPhones there.

4. EXCLUSIVE: Two Russian billionaires are primed to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank in a $2.3bn sale of Russia’s largest private lender. Read more on how Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven seek to free themselves from western sanctions.

5. EXCLUSIVE: UK-based Ferguson has “no regrets” over moving its listing to New York last year, the plumbing equipment supplier’s chief said. As others also shun London for the US, here’s why Kevin Murphy thinks the switch achieved almost all its goals.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

The Big Read

Historian Vincent Scully famously said of New York’s Penn Station: “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.” Fixing it has been an elusive dream since the original was demolished in 1963 in what many regard as the city’s greatest architectural crime. The long-delayed project, trapped in byzantine politics and personal rivalries, has been called by some as “too important to fail”.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Murky finances: Questions over money raised for a referendum campaign are casting a shadow on the Scottish National party’s leadership race.

• UK Budget: Most tweaks made by the chancellor make the tax system worse, writes Tim Harford, who suggests five changes that wouldn’t.

• Bad break-up: EY has been thrown into disarray by an internal war over its plan to split in two after its US boss said the deal would have to be paused.

Chart of the day

The evidence is now overwhelming: smartphones and social media are destroying children’s mental health, writes John Burn-Murdoch. Similar trends of depression and suicide are visible across the Atlantic, and they coincide with increased screen-time since the 2010s.

Take a break from the news

In this Weekend Essay for the FT, novelist Petina Gappah reminisces about a group of writers who put a fresh, modern vision of Africa out into the world.

Read more in FT Weekend’s specially curated series celebrating African writers and artists.

Additional contributions by Darren Dodd and Emily Goldberg