AFP, New York :
Shares of large banks retreated Thursday on dimming expectations of a hike in US interest rates as Wall Street stocks finished modestly lower.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo both lost 1.7 percent, joining Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others in falling ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting. Analysts see almost no chance of an interest rate hike next week following poor US May jobs data.
Buying sentiment was further dented by lower oil prices, weakness in European bourses and bearish statements about the economy from veteran billionaire investors Carl Icahn and George Soros.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1 percent to 17,985.19.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2 percent at 2,115.48, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 percent to 4,958.62.
Petroleum-linked shares were in retreat, with Schlumberger falling 1.1 percent, Marathon Oil 1.9 percent and Anadarko Petroleum 1.3 percent.
Barrick Gold climbed 1.9 percent on higher gold prices, but Freeport-McMoRan, which produces copper and oil in addition to gold, tumbled 5.9 percent as copper and oil prices fell.
Yahoo rose 1.0 percent on reports that several suitors are bidding $5 billion or more for the core business of the faded Internet pioneer.
