concerns about the american banking system’s health yet again sent the stock market tumbling wednesday as one major index posted one of their weakest may returns of the millennium the dow jones industrial average fell 04 or 130 points while the sp 500 and the techheavy nasdaq slid 06 apiece headlining the skid were bank stocks all 10 of the largest us banks by market capitalization dropped 1 or more in wednesday trading losing nearly 24 billion in value investors’ loss of faith in bank stocks came after the federal deposit insurance corporation revealed bank deposits fell 25 during the first three months of 2023 the largest decline since regulators began tracking the metric 39 years ago the fdic noted wednesday the 82 reduction in the volume of deposits above the fdicguaranteed 250000 limit drove the broader outflows accompanying this flight were a surge in popularity in investing in higheryield money market funds and safe haven assets like gold the dow was down 35 this month its secondworst may of the last decade while the sp 500 up 03 and nasdaq up 61 notched stronger months thanks to their heavier exposure to megacap tech stocks investors grew quite familiar this year with bank stocks driving broader market losses a trio of major regional banks – silicon valley signature and first republic – failed between march and may leaving their shareholders with virtually worthless investments the biggest bank stocks have largely recovered since their march collapses as shares of the likes of jpmorgan and bank of america are up significantly over the last two months though regional institutions like pacwest crashed to fresh alltime lows this month the dow’s morose may may forebode weak stock performance for the summer and fall months if you buy into the “sell in may and go away” investing adage the saying which advises to offload stocks in may is based on the notion that returns are greatest between november and april before waning over the last five years the dow has gained 36 on average between november 1 and april 30 and rallied 46 between may 1 and october 31 throwing a wrench in the theory though that number is heavily skewed by the midpandemic rapid rally between late 2020 and early 2021 what to watch for the house will vote wednesday evening at about 830 pm on a bill to raise the debt limit before the federal government was set to default on its debt repayments june 5 despite investors’ keen interest in the saga leading up to the bipartisan agreement struck last weekend the deal going to vote represents neither a “positive or negative for the broad markets” sevens report analyst tom essaye wrote wednesday noting the highprofile standoff did little to change federal spending projections how accurate is sell in may and go away forbes