New York, May 24, 2026, 17:05 EDT
- Bank of America finished Friday at $51.80, adding 0.6% on the day. Shares rose about 4.1% this week.
- U.S. stock trading won’t resume until Tuesday. The NYSE stays closed Monday for Memorial Day.
- It’s a short trading week, with CEO Brian Moynihan set to speak at Bernstein on Wednesday. April PCE inflation numbers come out Thursday.
Bank of America finished the week with a bounce, going into the Memorial Day break. The stock saw gains late in the week, but the next stretch won’t offer much cushion. Traders have a shortened week ahead and will watch rates, what management says, and if last month’s solid bank earnings still matter.
BAC finished Friday at $51.80, a gain of 0.6%. Shares got as high as $52.15 during the day. For the week, the stock added about 4.1%, comparing the May 15 close of $49.77 to Wednesday’s finish.
Market timing is key here. The NYSE will close for Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, in 2026, so BAC won’t trade again until Tuesday. Normal hours for core NYSE trading are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
Stocks moved higher Friday. The S&P 500 picked up 0.4%, closing out its eighth winning week in a row. The Dow climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.2%, AP said. Over the week, the S&P 500 gained 0.9%. The Dow was up 2.1%.
Bank of America’s peers were mixed and mostly flat. JPMorgan Chase was last seen higher by 1.1% at $306.38. Wells Fargo put on 0.6% to $76.40. Citigroup edged down 0.1% to $125.09, market data showed.
Bank of America’s calendar kicks off Wednesday, with Chair and CEO Brian Moynihan set to speak at Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions Conference at 10:00 a.m. ET. A webcast will be available through the company’s investor relations page, and Bank of America said a replay will be posted.
Thursday’s focus is the PCE, the price index banks track for macro clues. The personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, measures what U.S. consumers pay for goods and services. The Bureau of Economic Analysis sets the next release for May 28. Lenders pay attention to PCE since inflation impacts expectations for interest rates.
Bank of America pointed to its latest earnings as a reason for support on the stock. The bank posted $30.3 billion in first-quarter revenue after interest expense, with net income at $8.6 billion. Diluted EPS came in at $1.11 and return on tangible common equity was 16.0%.
Trading, investment banking, and net interest income drove the first-quarter beat for Bank of America, with sales and trading revenue up 13% to $6.4 billion and investment banking fees up 21% to $1.8 billion, according to Reuters. The net interest income reflects the spread between loan earnings and what the bank pays on deposits. CEO Brian Moynihan said client activity was “healthy,” and CFO Alastair Borthwick said, “we feel good about our pipeline.” Reuters
CFRA’s Kenneth Leon downgraded Bank of America to Hold from Buy last week, according to StreetInsider. The analyst set a price target of $55. A Hold suggests Leon does not see enough outperformance from the stock to keep it rated Buy.
The risk for banks is that rates move in an unfavorable direction. A cooler PCE print can encourage bets on lower rates, but that can hurt margins if loan yields drop faster than what banks pay on deposits. If the PCE data runs hot, yields could stay up, but that brings concerns about borrower strain. Private credit — loans from non-bank credit funds — is in focus, too. Reuters said BofA holds about $20 billion of this kind of portfolio finance debt. “We haven’t seen any losses,” Borthwick told Reuters. Reuters
BAC looks set for Tuesday’s open with focus shifting from holiday headlines to what Moynihan says about Q1. Steady consumers, sticky deposits, and the capital-markets pipeline are still the story. This isn’t earnings week. But Thursday’s PCE print could end up driving the rate move anyway.
