In general, the relatively high interest rate environment hasn't been kind to banks, leading to compressed net interest margins. Plus, bank charge-off rates have increased significantly over the past year, and many fear a recession could lead to an even larger spike.

With that in mind, it might surprise you to learn that consumer-focused megabank Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) outperformed the S 500 by about nine percentage points in the first half of 2024.

To be fair, Wells Fargo isn't the only bank stock that beat the S 500 in the first half of 2024. In fact, most big banks did, as the economy is proving to be more resilient than expected in the higher-rate environment, and banks rebounded after an extremely turbulent and uncertain 2023. However, Wells Fargo did even better than most other big bank stocks, outperforming both JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America so far this year.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com