New York, Feb 25, 2026, 07:42 EST — Premarket
Bank of America shares ticked up 0.4% to $50.61 ahead of the bell, reversing some of Tuesday’s 1.29% slide to $50.41. Roughly 6,800 shares changed hands premarket, MarketWatch data showed.
Gains out of the gate follow a stretch of choppy trading in U.S. stock index futures, with investor nerves frayed over artificial-intelligence outlays and trade policy uncertainty. Rate chatter won’t fade either—multiple Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to deliver remarks later Wednesday.
Trade headlines, once again, are jumping all over the place. The U.S. slapped on a temporary 10% global import tariff Tuesday, with the Trump administration pushing behind the scenes for a bump to 15%, a White House official told Reuters.
Bank of America shares lost 3.75% on Monday and dropped a further 1.29% Tuesday. Trading for the day saw the stock moving between $49.47 and $50.88, with roughly 53 million shares traded, Investing.com data showed.
Big banks are pushing a message of stability, despite fresh concerns cropping up in the markets. On Monday, JPMorgan projected that investment banking fees and markets revenue will rise by a mid-teens percentage in the first quarter. Doug Petno, from the firm, put it simply: “I think a lot of these transactions will survive the volatility and carry on.” Reuters
Bank of America’s got a spot on the docket too. Co-President Dean Athanasia is set to take the stage at RBC Capital Markets’ Global Financial Institutions Conference on March 10. A webcast will be posted over on the lender’s investor relations page.
BAC is still hanging on the basics: rate direction, borrower resilience, and sustained loan growth. Net interest margin keeps driving bank profits, with that gap between loan income and deposit costs quick to shift as rate expectations change.
Strategists say the market’s direction is tied less to upside earnings surprises and more to inflation—and how the Fed responds. “It’s very difficult right now to point to where there’s a lot of weakness,” Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, told Reuters, highlighting “lingering concern around inflation” as a main risk. Marc Dizard at Huntington Wealth Management described a near-term correction as “healthy.” Reuters
Eyes turn to Nvidia after the bell Wednesday, as the chipmaker delivers its fiscal fourth-quarter numbers—a key gauge for traders weighing risk. Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland, quoted by Kiplinger, anticipates “better results and guidance,” a call that may shape broader positioning headed into Thursday. Kiplinger
Still, the risks for Bank of America aren’t tough to spot. Tariffs climb, growth forecasts may weaken, and credit expenses could jump. Get a rush of rate-cut wagers, and the bank’s lending spread-driven earnings might take a hit—even if the market cheers it early on.
Investors now eye two dates on the bank’s agenda: Athanasia is slated to speak at a conference on March 10, with Bank of America’s quarterly earnings due out April 15, per the company’s investor relations schedule.
