Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 28, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Stocks rose Friday as Wall Street wrapped up a volatile, but winning quarter that saw more Federal Reserve rate tightening and a mini-financial panic spurred on by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
The S&P 500 traded 0.9% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 264 points, or 0.9%.
The market got a slight boost Friday after the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed a less-than-expected increase in prices. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which excludes energy and food costs, rose 0.3% in February, less than the 0.4% expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up 5.5% and 14.8%, respectively, for the first quarter through Thursday’s close. The Dow is down slightly. For the month the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have gained 2% and 4.9%, respectively. The Dow, meanwhile, is up 0.6% through Thursday’s close.
S&P 500 in the first quarter
But it hasn’t been a smooth ride. Stocks mounted a comeback in the latter part of March after the month began with the failure of two regional banks, a forced-takeover of Credit Suisse and a flight of deposits from smaller institutions. The government’s backstop of the deposits of SVB, as well as Signature Bank, and the setup of a special lending facility for other banks, helped stem the crisis.
Primary credit lending totaled $88.2 billion while banks took out $64.4 billion through the Fed’s new Bank Term Funding Program, according to Fed data released Thursday that covered the period from March 22-29. That total of $152.6 billion was down slightly from $164 billion the week before and a further sign the crisis was stabilizing as the month comes to an end.
The SPDR Regional Banking ETF ticked higher in Friday premarket trading, continuing its comeback from the contagion…
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