The Goldman Sachs Group provides investment banking, securities, and investment management services to corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals worldwide. Goldman reorganized its businesses in 4Q22 into three operating segments: Asset & Wealth Management, Global Banking & Markets, and Platform Solutions, with the latter including transaction banking and consumer partnerships. INDSUTRY Our rating on the Financial sector is Over-Weight. The Financial sector accounted for 12.6% of the S&P 500 as of the end of March. We think diversified investors should have meaningful exposure to the sector, at about 125-150% of the current sector weight. The sector receives above-average marks on our six-part 'blind' sector rating criteria, which includes growth momentum, valuation, financial strength, and analyst conviction, among other factors. The sector has underperformed the market year to date with a loss of 9.8% as of the end of March. The sector underperformed in 2025, with a gain of 13.3%, compared to a gain of 16.4% for the S&P 500. The beta for the sector is 1.1. Over the past five years, the sector's weighting has ranged from 10% to 15%. The sector's P/E ratio on projected 2026 EPS was 15, below the market multiple. The yield of 1.4% was above the market average. The sector's smoothed earnings growth rate of 9% was below the market average. The Financial sector is a cyclical and often value-oriented sector. The macroeconomic factors that may affect the performance of stocks in the Financial sector include the Unemployment Rate (which can influence the debt repaying capability of consumers and therefore credit costs), Interest Rates (which can determine lending profitability), and GDP or growth in the economy (which influence loan growth). The industry is also highly regulated, so changes in the regulatory environment can influence capital set-aside requirements and thus profitability. At this stage of the market and economic cycle, our favored industries within the Financial sector include Diversified Banks, Financial Exchanges & Data, and Investment Banking & Brokerage.

It seemed as if a period of geopolitical relative calm was forming, and investors were turning their attention to the just-beginning earnings season. But there was a step back over the weekend, as a marathon session of diplomacy resulted in nothing of note regarding a possible end of the war between the U.S. and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other. So as we enter this week, oil prices are headed higher yet again and the possibility that fighting will begin again is back in play. Meanwhile, the weekly insider-sentiment data from Vickers Stock Research shows a slight sentiment improvement among insiders at companies that trade on the NYSE and a noticeable sentiment drop among insiders at companies that trade on the NYSE. Of note, those results are likely driven more by expectations for earnings season than by developments in the war, as the data was compiled prior to the disappointing weekend geopolitical news. Turning to insider sentiment on a sector basis, six sectors logged bullish one-week sell/buy ratios over the past week. These included Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financials, Industrial, and Materials. Of these sectors, Financial had the lowest (most bullish) sell/buy ratio, coming in at 0.3. Meanwhile, Information Technology was the only sector that recorded a bearish sell/buy ratio during the week. While we note that this represents a weaker result than the sector posted last week, when it recorded a neutral ratio, the IT sector has fluctuated regularly between bearish and neutral over the past several weeks. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at Photronics Inc. (NGS: PLAB) and Jabil Inc. (NYSE: JBL).

Goldman Sachs is a storied financial institution, founded in 1869 and best known for its role as a leading global investment bank. The firm has a sprawling reach across global financial centers and has been the leading provider of global merger and acquisition advisory services, by revenue, for the past 20 years. Since the global financial crisis, Goldman has expanded its offerings into more stable fee-based businesses like asset and wealth management, which comprised roughly 30% of post-provision revenue at the end of 2025. The firm generates revenue from investment banking, global market making and trading, lending, asset management, wealth management, and a small and declining portfolio of consumer credit card loans.

The news over the weekend was not what investors hoped to hear, and crude oil prices are moving higher yet again. For stocks, you can flip a coin -- as the U.S. market has been immune to jumps in WTI of late. After a great start to the month, geopolitical worries were seemingly starting to calm. Indeed, last week the S&P 500 (SPX) rose 3.6%, its best five-day stretch since late November 2025. The Nasdaq ripped higher by 4.7%, the Nasdaq 100 popped 4.5%, the S&P 400 gained 3.3% and the S&P 600 added 4%.