Stocks open lower, financials lag as big banks report earnings

Yahoo Finance Live’s Brad Smith breaks down how stocks are moving after the opening bell.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Here we got the opening bell on this Friday morning. Remember, folks, Monday is a holiday, Martin Luther King Day. And the Memorial Foundation is ringing the opening bell this morning to mark that holiday, ahead of that holiday.

Just getting back to what we're seeing in stocks for a moment, our friend, Ryan Detrick, pointing out an interesting stat here this morning, chief market strategist over at the Carson Group. The S&P 500 is up now, after eight trading days, almost 4%, 3.74%. He said it's the best start to a year since 2003. So the pause that we are taking after a little bit of rally here to start the year, Brad. What are you seeing over there at the interactive?

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, well, you know, talking about that year-to-date move that we're seeing thus far in the S&P 500, you're seeing things higher, as you were mentioning a moment ago. But on the day, out of the gate, we are lower by about 3/4 of a percent. We'll keep a close eye on that. The NASDAQ composite, tech-heavy average, you're seeing that lower by about 8/10 of a percent.

But year-to-date, of course, different story there. So a little bit of buying activity re-entering into the fray here. It's up by about 4% year-to-date. And then the Dow Jones Industrial Average going into the holiday weekend, we're seeing that lower to start off the day by about 7/10 of a percent. But your date, again, still in positive territory. So holding onto gains for the US major averages here on the year-to-date scale thus far. It is early. We are in January, and that is a known.

But let's also take a look at some of the unknowns, at least until right now. And that is where the 11 S&P 500 sectors are faring. We're actually negative across the board right now. Energy, you're seeing that as the best of the worst here on the day, flat, just barely to the downside. But bringing up the caboose here, you've got financials down 1.3%. We were just running through some of the bank earnings. And then consumer discretionary, that's also down by about 1.2% out of the gate this morning.