Bank Stocks Throw a Party But Forget To Invite JPMorgan

Shares of U.S. banks of all sizes and specialties rose Friday over 3 percent, handily beating the performance of the wider stock market, which itself was in a head-first rally following a week of disappointing news. But there was one big exception to the equity party: megabank JPMorgan Chase and Co. (NYSE:JPM), which looked poised to underperform its peers in late-afternoon trading.

It was hard to overstate how well bank stocks were doing Friday. The KBW Bank Index, a widely followed measure of large and medium-size U.S. banks, was up 3.24 percent aound 2:15 p.m. New York time. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo and Company (NYSE:WFC) were both up 3.05 percent for the day around the same time, while giant Citigroup blew the competition away, rising 5.08 percent.

Large regional banks Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK) and Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) were also having red-letter days, up 5.12 and 5.15 percent, respectively. Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF), Suntrust Banks Inc. (NYSE:STI), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) and Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) were all more than 3 percent.

And the houses of high finance were getting in on the action too, with Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), up 3.08 percent and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) a whopping 5.75 percent.

JPMorgan, on the other hand, was left out in the cold, failing to rise over 3 percent from the previous day's close throughout the session. In a day otherwise devoid of major headlines, it was likely the divergence was due to aftereffects from the London Whale trading debacle at the company. A Wall Street Journal front-page story out Friday broke news that a higher-level company official, Javier Martin-Artajo, had been involved in promoting the risky trading strategy and lobbied for negative numbers to be dressed up. The news could have the effect of bringing investor and regulator questioning of JPMorgan's risk and compliance methods to the fore.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Co. recently sold for $36.20, up $1.03, or 2.93 percent from the previous day's close, in mid-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange