Regional bank shares rallied sharply premarket and extended those gains in early trading Friday after a bruising session the day prior, as a government jobs report beat market forecasts for both payroll growth and the unemployment rate despite banking sector turmoil and a slowing economy.
PacWest led the charge in the regional bank stock rebound, jumping nearly 55 percent by 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, erasing the prior day’s losses. The California-based bank, which recently announced that it was considering a range of strategic options, including a sale, saw its shares plunge to close 50 percent down on Thursday.
The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF jumped nearly 5 percent as of 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, after closing roughly 4.5 percent down the day prior. remove…