Bank Bloodbath: Barclays, Deutsche Bank Plunge in €37bn Sell-Off

It was a bloodbath for bank stocks, with Barclays and Deutsche Bank plunging nearly 6% each as €37.4 billion was wiped from the European banking sector. The panic was part of a global sell-off sparked by new credit fears in the US.
The trigger was disclosures from two regional lenders, Zions Bancorporation and Western Alliance, which reported $150 million in combined bad loans. Their stocks cratered, sparking fears of a repeat of the 2023 SVB crisis.
The anxiety spread from Wall Street to Asia, where the Nikkei and Hang Seng fell, and then to Europe. The FTSE 100, Dax, and other major indices all closed in the red, with banks being the biggest drag on the market.
Analysts warned of “storm clouds gathering” as investors faced a “wall of worry.” This uncertainty sent investors fleeing to gold, which hit a new record high, and caused the VIX “fear index” to spike by over 22%.