NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - Stock indexes rose and the dollar declined on Thursday on easing fears about banking sector troubles, encouraging economic signs from the chip industry and rising oil prices.
Two-year Treasury yields rose to a one-week high as investors grew more confident that recent stress in the banking sector would be contained, but remained cautious about the impact that recent bank failures would have on the economy.
The U.S. dollar slipped to a one-week low against the euro as German inflation data helped lift the common currency.
And oil prices rose with support from lower U.S. crude stockpiles and a halt to exports from Iraq's Kurdistan region, which offset pressure from a smaller-than-expected cut to Russian supplies.
"Investors seem to be increasingly confident the bank turmoil is going to continue to ease and that we're near a peak in central bank rate hikes," said Jeff Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab in Celebration, Florida.
"We're seeing this rally driven by stocks that are sensitive to the pace of growth and inflation," said Kleintop, who also pointed to climbing oil prices and weakness in the safe haven dollar, which investors flock to when they are worried.
"Definitely a more bullish tone is starting to pick up here on Wall Street," said the strategist, though he cautioned that there could still be some volatility ahead.
Among equities indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 34.91 points, or 0.11%, to 32,752.51, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 14.85 points, or 0.37%, to 4,042.66 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 68.98 points, or 0.58%, to 11,995.21.
The chip sector also extended Wednesday's gains as falling inventories at Micron Technology(MU.O) were seen as an encouraging sign for the sector as well as the broader economy.
"If inventories have come down for semiconductors that stands to reason it may have come down for many other products as well," said Kleintop, who added that this "feeds right into economic growth."
Beyond Wall Street, the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 1.03% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 0.61%.
Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) rose 0.66%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) closed 0.62% higher, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) lost 0.36%.
In currencies, the dollar index fell 0.438%, with the euro up 0.54% to $1.0902. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.20% versus the greenback at 132.55 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.2372, up 0.5% on the day.
In U.S. Treasuries, benchmark 10-year notes were down 0.4 basis points to 3.562%, from 3.566% late on Wednesday. The 30-year bond was last down 1.7 basis points to yield 3.7613%. The two-year note was last was up 3.7 basis points to yield 4.1174%.
In commodities, U.S. crude recently rose 1.8% to $74.28 per barrel and Brent was at $79.20, up 1.18% on the day. Spot gold added 0.7% to $1,978.49 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 0.64% to $1,979.40 an ounce.
In crypto currencies, Bitcoin last fell 0.91% to $28,094.00.
