A Troubling Technical Trend In The Charts Of These Banks

On the heels of disappointing earnings reports by several big American banks this week, financial stocks have taken a beating. A quick look at some charts reveals a disturbing trend in several big-name stocks.
Bank of America Corp BAC
Bank of America’s earnings report this week was a flop, as the company missed revenue expectations by $2 billion. After finishing 2014 essentially at 52-week highs, Bank of America’s stock has taken a dive in early 2015.

The stock broke down out of the upward channel it had been trading inside since the end of April 2014. The stock has even dropped below the low of its previous dip back in October. It appears the next potential technical support is around $14.75, a level at which the stock found support in early August.
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM
You don’t have to be a technical analysis expert to recognize a breakdown in JP Morgan’s chart that is very similar to the one in Bank of America’s chart.

JP Morgan stock has also been trading inside of an ascending channel since April of 2014, and it also broke out of that channel to the downside this week on disappointing earnings. Shareholders are hoping that the $74.00 level that served as support in October will hold this time as well.
Citigroup Inc C
Citigroup stock broke down this week after a lackluster earnings report and crashed through the support line of the upward-sloping channel it had been trading inside since (you guessed it) April 2014.

Shareholders are hoping the stock finds support at the $46.00 level. That level was tested and held several times in early 2014.
Outlook
There’s no way to know for sure whether these technical breakdowns are temporary or a sign of more trouble ahead. However, one thing is certain: 2015 is off to a rough start for these three big banks.
Disclosure: the author owns shares of Bank of America.