Why Bank of America Shares Jumped on Monday

What happened

In sharp contrast to their recent sell-off, Bank of America (BAC -0.13%) shares ended Monday's session up 5%, leading stocks of similarly sized banking peers like Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase. The groupwide effort led by BofA suggests investors are starting to let go of worries of a sweeping liquidity crisis for the nation's banking system.

So what

Don't look for a company-specific reason for the jump. You won't find one. You're more likely to feel or sense one in the wake of First Citizens' (NASDAQ: FCNCA) intended acquisition of most of the banking assets of SVB Financial (NASDAQ: SIVB), which is parent to failed banking name Silicon Valley Bank.

While SVB's shareholders and bondholders are, essentially, officially wiped out by the sale -- which would have been to another bank if not First Citizens -- the deal ends an ugly saga without any other banks being forced into collapse. Investors as well as customers of all other banks can at least breathe a little easier now that the matter hasn't grown into an industrywide contagion.

Now what

One firmly bullish day doesn't inherently mark the beginning of a new trend, of course. But all new trends start out with that first small step. In this case, Monday's bullish bump may well be the first step of a more prolonged bullish move.

Bank of America shares fell nearly 40% from February's peak to March's trough, with most of that weakness spurred by the SVB Financial debacle that portended similar trouble for the nation's other banks. The rest of the banking industry's asset bases are far better diversified than Silicon Valley Bank's were, however, and most other U.S. banks also have access to other liquidity backstops that SVB didn't. The market largely lost sight of this fact in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's meltdown. But investors may be starting to recognize BofA and its peers aren't careening into the same sort of liquidity crunch. More to the point, this particular stock's earnings, dividend, and subsequent dividend yield of nearly 3.6% aren't in any serious peril.

Just be advised that investors' improving perceptions of bank stocks likely remain fragile, setting the stage for more volatility in the immediate future.