WALL Street stocks retreated on Friday (May 12) to close out a mixed week as markets monitored regional bank shares and awaited key talks to avert a US debt default.

The White House said on Thursday that negotiations between President Joe Biden and Republican congressional leaders would be postponed until early next week to allow staff to continue working.

“Wall Street seems sanguine about the debt ceiling, perhaps because the country has never defaulted and there’s still a three-week window during which a deal could be struck,” said a note from Charles Schwab.

“Still, it’s hard to see the market getting much traction with this overhang.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped less than 0.1 per cent to 33,300.62.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2 per cent to 4,124.08, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.4 per cent to 12,284.74.

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Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended the week with modest losses, while the Nasdaq posted narrow gains.

Regional banks mostly fell, though the declines were less severe than in some recent sessions. PacWest Bancorp dropped 3.0 per cent and Comerica lost 2.1 per cent, while Western Alliance Bancorporation climbed 2.1 per cent.

Besides the resumption of talks on the US debt ceiling, next week’s calendar also includes congressional testimony on the ongoing banking industry travails.

These include a hearing on Tuesday with former heads of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, two of the major lenders that have failed in recent weeks. AFP