Stocks close slightly lower: S&P 500 flat at 7,805, Dow off 180 points as Citi drops 5.6% on bank earnings

U.S. stocks ended a day of bank earnings almost unchanged at the index level and a little lower underneath. The S&P 500 slipped 1.79 points to 7,805.45, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 180.45 points, or 0.35%, to 51,670.10, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.15% to 27,204.38, according to closing prices from Yahoo Finance read at 4:35 p.m. ET.

Source: Yahoo Finance. Percent changes are against Monday's close.

Banks reported, and the market sorted them

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all reported third-quarter results before the open. CNBC's coverage called JPMorgan's quarter a rare miss and said Goldman beat estimates on revenue and earnings per share, led by equities trading. The stocks did not all follow that script. Goldman closed down 0.2% at $891.91 and JPMorgan down 0.9% at $331.43, while Wells Fargo fell 3.1% to $80.74 and Citigroup dropped 5.6% to $124.53, the day's largest move among the four.

Investment banking fees held up against last year but slipped from the second quarter. CNBC reported JPMorgan's were up 14% from a year earlier and down 8% from the prior quarter, Goldman's up 21% and down 5%, and Citi's down 13% on the quarter. Goldman CEO David Solomon said the September IPO market "was a little bit softer" and that issuers who expected one valuation and were offered 10% to 15% less might choose to wait. Our morning bank earnings report has the trading-revenue detail.

Separately, the Treasury Department announced about $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America over anti-money-laundering failures and sanctions violations, Fox Business reported, including what it described as the largest penalty in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's history. The Financial Times carried the same story. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley report Wednesday.

Oil rises, yields ease

West Texas Intermediate settled at $94.93 a barrel, up 1.3% from $93.74, while Brent was little changed at $106.54, down 0.1%, per Yahoo Finance. The WSJ and Investing.com both described the session as mixed, with attention on a U.S.-Russia diesel arrangement and attacks on Saudi targets from Yemen. Exxon Mobil rose 1.1% to $174.08 and Delta Air Lines slipped 0.7% to $79.57. Gold futures fell 0.2% to $4,181.30.

The Treasury's par yield curve showed the 10-year at 5.21% on Tuesday, down from 5.24% on Friday, with the 2-year at 4.79% from 4.80% and the 30-year at 5.56% from 5.60%, per the U.S. Treasury. Monday was a bond-market holiday, so the comparison is with Friday. New York Fed President John Williams said the Fed may not have to hike in 2027, at odds with what traders price (our analysis).

What comes next

Existing home sales for September came in at 3.99 million against a 3.95 million forecast, per our economic calendar; we worked through what that means for the businesses around a sale. The bigger test is Wednesday's September CPI, forecast at 0.6% for the month and 3.6% over 12 months, against 0.4% and 3.4% before, with core forecast at 0.2% for the month. Retail sales follow Thursday, forecast at 0.3% against 1.2% before. Our CPI explainer shows what a 3.6% print does to lease escalators and wage budgets.

Sources: Yahoo Finance (closing prices, read 4:35 p.m. ET), CNBC, Fox Business, Financial Times, WSJ, Investing.com, U.S. Treasury, Chronicle economic calendar. This is market information, not investment advice.