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Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fall
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Block Inc slides after Hindenburg says short on shares
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U.S. SEC threatens to sue Coinbase, shares tank
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Indexes up: Dow 1.24%, S&P 1.50%, Nasdaq 2.15%
(Updates prices; adds comments, details)
By Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar
March 23 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq led the rally among Wall
Street's main indexes as major rate-sensitive technology and
growth stocks advanced after the Federal Reserve hinted it was
close to pausing interest rate hikes amid turbulence in the
banking sector.
As U.S. Treasury yields slipped on growing hopes of an end
to the Fed's tightening cycle, Apple Inc , Microsoft
Corp and Amazon.com Inc gained around 2% each
on Thursday.
Nvidia Corp jumped 3.3% after Needham raised its
price target on the chipmaker on likely benefit from near-term
data center strength.
Communication services and technology shares led the gains among S&P 500 sector indexes.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday raised rates by an
expected 25 basis points, but its policy statement no longer
said "ongoing increases" would likely be appropriate, indicating
a clear shift in its stance.
The Fed's softer tone relieved markets that have been roiled
by liquidity-crisis concerns in the banking sector since the
failure of two U.S. regional lenders earlier this month.
"Markets are hoping that you have one more interest rate
hike to go, probably," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio
manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut.
"I would imagine the hopes (of a rate cut) are smashed. You
don't want things going so south that you need a rate cut."
Traders' bets are almost equally split between the Fed
pausing its rate hikes in May and another 25 bps hike, according
to CME Group's Fedwatch tool.
Meanwhile, troubled regional lender First Republic Bank dropped 6% and extended losses amid volatile trading
following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's remark that there
was no discussion on insuring all bank deposits.
Peers Truist Financial Corp and Western Alliance
Bancorp , however, were up 2.1% and 4.4%, respectively.
Data showed jobless claims fell to 191,000 last week from
the week prior, against expectations that the number would rise
to 197,000.
Globally, the Bank of England raised interest rates by a
further quarter of a percentage point and expects the surge in
British inflation to cool faster than before.
At 12:07 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 398.52 points, or 1.24%, at 32,428.63, the S&P 500 was up 59.20 points, or 1.50%, at 3,996.17, and the Nasdaq
Composite was up 251.34 points, or 2.15%, at 11,921.30.
Block Inc tanked 12.8% after Hindenburg Research said
it held short positions in the Jack Dorsey-led payments firm.
Coinbase Global Inc slid 11.1% after the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission threatened to sue the crypto
exchange over some of its products.
Accenture jumped 7.7% on plans to cut about 2.5% of
its workforce.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 3.08-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and 10 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 42 new highs and 130 new lows.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru;
Editing by Savio D'Souza, Vinay Dwivedi and Shounak Dasgupta)
