Charles Schwab shares fall after announcing cost-cutting plan

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares of Charles Schwab (NYSE:) fell by nearly 5% to a one-month low on Tuesday after the U.S. brokerage unveiled a cost-cutting plan that came with steep one-time charges.

Charles Schwab announced on Monday that it planned to layoff staff and close or downsize some corporate offices to save about $500 million.

But Charles Schwab is expected to incur one-time charges of up to $500 million from the cost-cutting measure, potentially dampening its profit in the second half of this year.

Charles Schwab’s stock fell as much as 5.3% to $56.26, the lowest level since July and the biggest one-day percentage drop since March. The stock, which is down 32% year-to-date, ended the session at $56.46.

Charles Schwab is among brokerages and other financial firms, including State Street (NYSE:), Northern Trust (NASDAQ:) and Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:), that have been facing a sharp drop in customer deposits and an uptick in unrealized fixed-income asset losses since the U.S. Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates last year.

While higher rates have helped Charles Schwab and other firms earn more from interest income, the drop in deposits have drained them of a cheap source of funding, forcing them to raise new capital or cut costs.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note reached 4.366% on Tuesday, a high last seen in November 2007. Yields move inversely to bond prices, meaning the value of Treasuries held by banks on their balance sheets has fallen.

“We believe the stock has declined in recent days partly from the overall pullback in the stock market and potentially from the higher 10-year Treasury rate,” Morningstar analyst Michael Wong said in an investor note.