AnnaMaria Andriotis and Christina Rexrode:

Big banks are pulling back sharply from auto loans, helping drive a drop in car sales and raising fears the slump might deepen.

Wells Fargo & Co., one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, last month reported a 29% fall in its auto loan originations for the first quarter from a year earlier. The decline, the biggest for the San Francisco-based bank in at least five years, was part of a common refrain in quarterly announcements from…