First Republic Bank stock FRC tumbled another 15% in premarket trade Thursday, amid reports it’s exploring its strategic options, including a potential sale of the company. Bloomberg reported late Wednesday that the San Francisco-based bank, which has been caught up in the jitters sparked by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last week and two other lenders, was downgraded into junk territory by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings on Wednesday, citing concerns about deposit flight to bigger banks perceived to be safer. A spokesperson for First Republic declined comment to MarketWatch. JP Morgan said early Thursday that retail traders sold about $88 million First Republic single stock ETFs in the past week, accounting for most of the $163 million of financial ETFs that were dumped. Some $104 million of that total came from regional banks. First Republic stock has now fallen 82% over the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has fallen 10.7%.
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