It's been a tough couple of years for banks, and by extension, for bank stocks. Although the interest rate hikes seen since April of last year improve lending's profit margins, they can also crimp demand for loans. There's also the collapse of SVB Financial's Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank early this year, exposing similar liquidity risks being faced by other names in the business. Never even mind the fact that the inflation these rate increases were meant to curb is still with us.

Given all of this, it can't be entirely surprising the Dow Jones U.S. Bank Index is down 37% from its early 2022 peak.

Banks, however, just aren't in the sort of trouble most investors feared they'd be in at this point.

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Source Fool.com