Pre-Markets Lower on Bank Earnings, Ahead of Bigger Week

Friday, January 16th, 2026

Pre-market futures are currently in the green at this hour, but not convincingly so — at least for those major indexes not named the Russell 2000, which is up +2.5% over the past five trading days. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are still digging out from early-week selloffs. 

The Dow is -3 points at this hour, the S&P 500 is +10 points and the Nasdaq is closest to rebounding for the week, +129 points. Year to date, the small-cap Russell 2000 is surging ahead of the other indexes, +7.7%. The Dow is +2.7%, the Nasdaq +1.47% and the S&P 500 +1.43%. We’ll be down for a second-straight week of trading if we don’t see a turnaround sometime today.
 

Q4 Earnings Ahead of Friday’s Open

We round up a certain level of finance-based companies reporting Q4 earnings today. The big banks reporting early — the JPMorgans (JPM) and Goldman Sachses (GS) of the world — get most of the press, but banking in aggregate does not get a full review until a plurality of smaller investment houses.

The best performance on the bottom line from this group this morning is PNC Financial PNC, which beat earnings expectations by +15.4%. The Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated Pittsburgh-based bank had been up nearly +5% on the news this morning, but is currently +3.2%.

MTB Bank MTB posted earnings of $4.72 per share versus estimates of $4.44, for a +6.3% positive surprise. Higher-than-expected non-interest income was cited in the bank’s letter to shareholders, and MTB stock is up marginally ahead of the open.

Boston-based State Street Corp. STT reported Q4 earnings of $2.97 per share, above the $2.82 in the Zacks consensus. This equates to a +5.3% surprise, though shares are down -2% thus far in today’s pre-market. Yesterday, State Street unveiled a new digital financial infrastructure prior to reporting earnings figures.

Regions Financial RF missed expectations on both top and bottom lines this morning. Earnings of 57 cents per share was beneath the 61 cents expected, and revenues of $1.92 billion was slightly below the Zacks consensus of $1.93 billion. Shares are down -4% at this hour in pre-market trading.
 

Economic Reports After the Opening Bell

Officially out 15 minutes ahead of the market open are December numbers for Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization. Both are expected to bring muted results, with Industrial Production estimated up +0.1% from +0.2% reported for November, with Capacity Utilization remaining at a lukewarm +76.0%, where it was reported a month ago.

Also a new Homebuilder Confidence Index is anticipated for January once the normal trading session is underway. This is expected to tick up to 40 from 39 the previous month, and would be the fourth-straight increase on this metric, though still well off the 47 reported in January of last year. None of these numbers have achieved the 50 threshold, which determines growth from loss.
 

What to Expect from the Market Next Week

Q4 earnings season branches out from the finance firms next week, with companies as disparate as Netflix NFLX and Intel INTC are due out with earnings reports. Over the past year, Netflix is the weakest performing of these, up just +4.5% in the past year. Intel, on the other hand, is up +145% over that period. Both stocks currently have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Other notable companies reporting earnings next week include GE Aerospace GE, which is currently rated a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), and Johnson & Johnson JNJ, a Zacks Rank #3. Over the past year of trading, GE is up a robust +78% and J&J is +48%, not too shabby either.

The big economic report next week is the November catch-up filing from Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), the Fed’s preferred metric on inflation. As we’ve seen in other government-generated economic reports, we’ll be kipping over October numbers next week. The latest print we have is the +2.8% from September — a half-point above where we were in April of last year: +2.3%. That is an average of +10 basis points each month from that point, which, if it continues, would bring us to +3.0% for November.

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