Stocks close higher, Dow jumps more than 300 points as banks step in to aid First Republic: Live updates

The three major indexes closed Thursday’s session up.

The Nasdaq Composite added around 2.5%, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.8%. The Dow gained 1.2%.

— Alex Harring

Jay Hatfield, chief investment officer at Infrastructure Capital Management, said investors should consider taking a pause on big moves until the end of next week.

He pointed to the Federal Reserve policy meeting next week and the fact that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation tends to take over banks of Fridays as two reasons why investors should wait to add exposure until the end of next week.

Investors should “wait to e see what’s the next shoe to drop, and then wait to see what the Fed’s really going to do,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

Still, Hatfield said he’s “extremely” bullish on the longer-term investing outlook. He said he’s sticking with his target of 4,500 points for the S&P 500, which would imply the broad index will gain 15.6% from where it closed Wednesday.

— Alex Harring

Investors are looking for the weakest banks as the crisis takes place, according to Greg Fleming, CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management and former president of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

“What’s also similar to ’08 is the hunting in the market for who’s the most weak next,” Fleming said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And the proxy’s been uninsured deposits.”

— Alex Harring

William Martin has emerged as the “big short” in the latest banking crisis brought on by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

The Rocky Hill, New Jersey-based short seller from Raging Capital Ventures singled out Silicon Valley Bank and announced a short position in a Twitter thread on January 18, the day before the bank’s quarterly earnings. Martin warned of SVB’s large held-to-maturity securities portfolio and accelerating deposit outflows, the exact culprit that brought down the venture capital-focused bank.

Martin believes the crisis should be fairly contained as most of the institutions are not as exposed to the interest rate risk as SVB.

“I think for the industry as a whole, a lot of banks face a period of de-risking, having to raise equity capital, which ultimately just translates into lower earnings and lower profits, but not the type of events we’ve seen over the last week,” Martin said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” Thursday.

— Yun Li

The major indexes were trading up as investors geared up for the final hour of a volatile trading day.

The Nasdaq Composite led the indexes up with a 2.1% gain. The S&P 500 advanced 1.4%, while the Dow added 0.9%.

All three indexes traded below the flatline earlier in the session before news of help for troubled First Republic Bank gave the market a boost.

The Nasdaq also has had the best week-to-date performance, up 4.9% since Monday. The S&P 500 has gained 2.2% since the start of the week, while the Dow has added 0.9%.

— Alex Harring

Wells Fargo analyst Elyse Greenspan double upgraded insurance stock Progressive to overweight from underweight, with her new price target of $158 implying upside of 17% from Wednesday’s close.

“PGR has turned the corner on growth, and we think that will drive the stock from here,” Greenspan said. “Progressive has seen its personal auto policy growth pick up significantly over the past couple of months … as they look to take advantage of shopping as competitors are taking price/re-pricing their books of business.”

“PGR is a defensive insurer with low investment leverage and conservative investment portfolio, which we believe should help the shares as we deal with market volatility,” the analyst added.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

The potential deposit at First Republic being discussed by major U.S. banks has grown to $30 billion, CNBC’s David Faber reports.

The biggest contributions would come from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase at about $5 billion apiece. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will deposit around $2.5 billion each, the sources said. Truist, PNC, U.S. Bancorp, State Street and Bank of New York will deposit about $1 billion each.

— Jesse Pound

Thursday’s rally has helped the three major indexes in what has been a volatile week thus far on Wall Street amid the bank crisis.

The Nasdaq Composite is up 4.8% so far this week, boosted as investors took bets on technology and other growth oriented stocks amid hope that the current challenges facing financial institutions could keep the Federal Reserve away from a 50 basis point interest rate hike. Growth stocks are considered by investors to be highly sensitive to interest rates.

The S&P 500 is up 2.3% week to date. Meanwhile, the Dow is up 0.9%.

— Alex Harring

Treasurys yields moved higher, and the futures market priced an 86% chance of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve next week, as more details emerged on a possible First Republic Bank rescue.

Yields, which move opposite price, were rising Thursday morning after the European Central Bank raised rates by a half percentage point. They pushed even higher following a late morning report that a group of major banks are discussing a rescue of First Republic.

CNBC’s David Faber then reported that a group of financial institutions, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are in talks to deposit roughly $20 billion into First Republic. Yields moved even further after his report.

“Short-term yields have gone up a lot,” said Michael Schumacher of Wells Fargo. “U.S. 2-year Treasury yields started going up during the ECB discussion, but blasted off on the news of First Republic.” The yield was at 4.20% in afternoon trading, up sharply from the 3.90% it was at around 10:45 a.m. ET, he noted.

Bleakley Financial’s Peter Boockvar said the futures market moved to price in even higher odds of a Fed rate hike. On Wednesday, odds were about 50% for a quarter point rate hike, but in Thursday afternoon trading the odds jumped up to 86%.

“Rate hike expectations have been rising all morning. Now people can take a deep breath,” Boockvar said.

— Patti Domm

Credit Suisse shares were up 5.35% Thursday afternoon, hitting a session high. The Swiss bank’s stock recovered some of its losses from Wednesday’s trading session after it announced it would borrow nearly $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank.

Other large banks saw their shares rise. JPMorgan shares gained 2.1%, while Goldman Sachs shares were up 1.5%.

— Hakyung Kim

Here are the stocks making the biggest moves midday:

• First Republic Bank — Shares of First Republic erased earlier losses and were last up about 22%. Sources told CNBC’s David Faber that a group of major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, were in talks to deposit roughly $20 billion into the beaten-down regional.
• Credit Suisse Group — The Swiss bank’s U.S.-listed shares were up 2.5% after it announced it will borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion) from the Swiss National Bank. The stock is coming off a volatile trading session on Wednesday, during which it lost 13.9% after the Saudi National Bank, its largest investor, said it would not be able to provide additional funding.
• UiPath — The stock surged 17.5% after the automation software company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 15 cents, beating the StreetAccount estimate of 6 cents per share. Revenue also topped expectations. After the results, UiPath was upgraded by Canaccord Genuity to buy from hold.

See the full list here.

— Tanaya Macheel

— Alex Harring

Sources told CNBC’s David Faber that a group of financial institutions — including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase — is in talks to deposit about $20 billion in First Republic.

The news comes after First Republic‘s stock has been pummeled in recent days, sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last Friday and Signature Bank over the weekend. 

Shares of First Republic were down more than 30% earlier in the day. In early afternoon trading, however, the stock was only down 3.3% before being halted for volatility.

— Jesse Pound, Fred Imbert

How volatile have U.S. stocks been three hours into the formal trading day Thursday?

The Nasdaq Composite has swung from a loss of as much as 0.60% to a gain of as much as 2.04% — making for a 2.64% swing.

The S&P 500 bottomed out with a loss Thursday of 0.71% and at the day’s high was up as much as 1.36%, making the bottom-to-high rebound 2.07%.

The Dow fluctuated from a loss of as much as 0.95% to up 0.74%, for a total swing from low to high of 1.69%. That amounts to a difference of more than 500 points.

The recovery came as the Wall Street Journal reported that as many as eight U.S. banks are in talks to rescue embattled San Francisco regional bank First Republic.

— Scott Schnipper

Canaccord Genuity upgraded UiPath to buy from hold on Thursday, a day after the automation software company’s earnings topped Wall Street’s expectations.

UiPath has made significant strides in recent months realigning its sales force to more effectively target accounts with high propensities to increase spending, analyst Kingsley Crane wrote in a note to clients. Its new tech, like Clipboard AI, is differentiated and its platform can leverage generative artificial intelligence to drive value, he said.

“When we look at PATH’s revenue scale, product set, and target market, we fundamentally see more opportunity on the horizon than in the rear view,” Kingsley said.

His $19 price target implies nearly 30% upside from Wednesday’s close. Shares of UiPath were up more than 15% in midday trading Thursday.

— Michelle Fox

Communication services stocks led the S&P 500 higher in Thursday’s session, advancing nearly 2%.

Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet led the sector with gains of nearly 4% each. Media organizations Warner Bros. Discovery and News Corp. were also among the sector’s biggest advancers with additions of 2.2% and 1.4%, respectively.

Thursday’s gain has moved the sector to a 6.6% gain so far this week. The move comes as investors are betting the banking crisis could push the Federal Reserve to avoid a 50 basis point interest rate hike at its next meeting. Technology and other growth stocks typically perform better during periods with lower interest rates.

Information technology and consumer discretionary followed in communication services’ tracks, rising 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively.

Despite the broader index’s mid-session turnover, some sectors were still trading down. Consumer staples performed the worst of the 11 sectors, on track for a 0.6% drop. Real estate and energy also posted losses of around 0.3% each.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Foot Locker were up 4% after Telsey Advisory Group upgraded shares to outperform from market perform. The footwear company is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings on March 20.

“We believe Monday’s investor day could serve as a catalyst for the stock, as new CEO Mary Dillon outlines her transformation plan and financial objectives,,” analyst Cristina Fernández wrote in a Thursday note.

“In her six months in the role, she has made changes to the leadership team and simplified the business by exiting international operations, while focusing on the ‘core’ Foot Locker and Champs banners and its ‘growth’ concepts,” the analyst added.

Fernández raised her price target to $50 from $39, implying almost 18% upside from Wednesday’s close price. Shares are up 11.5% in 2023.

— Hakyung Kim

Bank shares rebounded from their lows after The Wall Street Journal reported that some of the biggest U.S. banks were in talks to aid First Republic.

Shares of First Republic were down 23%, well off their lows, before being halted for volatility. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) also rebounded from its lows of the day and was last down 0.7%.

Among the banks in talks to support First Republic are JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, the report said, citing sources. The WSJ also said there are discussions of a possible share sale — or even a potential takeover.

— Fred Imbert

Big Tech shares climbed higher Thursday, shrugging off fears of the spreading banking crisis. Amazon shares rallied 3.3%, while Google parent Alphabet jumped 3%. Apple, Meta and Netflix also traded higher.

The strength in technology heavyweights pushed the major stock averages in the green in morning trading. Investors could be flocking to Big Tech to embrace their megacap safety, while betting that the current turmoil will keep the Fed from raising rates, benefitting growth names.

— Yun Li

Banking industry tumult is placing the U.S. economy in greater danger of a recession, according to Goldman Sachs.

The Wall Street firm upped its probability of a contraction in the 12 months ahead to 35%, a 10 percentage point increase, “reflecting increased near-term uncertainty around the economic effects of small bank stress,” Goldman economist Manuel Abecasis said in a client note Wednesday evening.

Regional bank stocks were taking a beating against Thursday. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF slumped 3.7% in early trading.

—Jeff Cox

Pershing Square founder and CEO Bill Ackman believes more bank failures could be on the way despite the regulatory intervention following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. He urged the government to explicitly guarantee all depositors’ money for the time being.

“Our gov’t’s failure to provide a temporary guarantee on all deposits is causing an unnecessary banking crisis which could have a profoundly negative effect on the economy,” Ackman said in a Thursday tweet.

“Confidence is destroyed quickly and can take years and sometimes decades to be restored. Three dominoes have fallen and another is on its way. The market will find its next victim(s) if this one is allowed to fall,” he added.

— Yun Li

Investors are dumping First Republic at a fast pace, with more than 41 million shares exchanging hands in only the first hour of trading. For comparison, the stock’s 30-day average volume is 15.18 million.

— Fred Imbert

The price of bitcoin advanced Thursday after a big rally in cryptocurrencies this week as the broader investment world assessed cracks in the banking system in the U.S. and Europe.

Bitcoin added about 1.5% to $24,763.60, according to Coin Metrics, while Ether added more than 1% to trade at $1,667.56. Earlier Thursday, bitcoin briefly touched $25,000, which has been a key level watched by chart analysts.

Investors have welcomed resilient crypto prices amid the banking crisis this week, which, coupled with bitcoin’s lowest correlation to stocks in months, is driving a narrative shift for bitcoin as a valuable alternative asset. Bitcoin’s price moves, however, are still heavily influenced by inflation and Federal Reserve rate hikes.

— Tanaya Macheel

The three major indexes traded down as markets opened for Thursday’s session.

The Dow and S&P 500 were both down around 0.6% in the first minutes after trading began. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.4%.

— Alex Harring

It’s time to build a long-term position in Motorola Solutions, according to JPMorgan.

Analyst Paul Chung upgraded Motorola Solutions to overweight from neutral, saying the telecommunications equipment firm that was spun off from telephone company Motorola Mobility Holdings is looking attractive.

“The stock has retraced back to levels pre-4Q print, and we take advantage of overall market volatility to establish a long-term position in this high-quality stock,” Chung wrote.

CNBC pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Western Alliance Bancorp tumbled more than 8% in extended trading after Fitch placed the bank on rating watch negative.

Fitch said the downgrade came as the fallout around Silicon Valley Bank’s closure and market conditions have created “liquidity stresses outside the baseline assumptions.”

The drop marks a turn from Wednesday’s session, when the stock gained 8.3% and bucked the broader slide in regional banks.

— Alex Harring

Building permits and housing starts soared in February, while the latest data on jobless claims saw a big drop, according to economic reports Thursday.

Permits jumped to 1.524 million, a 13.8% increase from January and well above the Dow Jones estimate for 1.34 million, the Commerce Department reported. At the same time, total starts soared to 1.45 million, a 9.8% monthly increase and easily above the 1.31 million estimate.

Jobless claims showed a notable decline.

First-time filings for unemployment benefits totaled 192,000, a decrease of 20,000 and below the expectation of 205,000, according to the Labor Department. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, fell by 29,000.

In other economic reports, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s manufacturing survey edged higher but was still at -23.2, representing the percentage difference between companies reporting expansion vs. contraction.

The New York Fed’s Business Leaders Survey nudged higher but also was still negative at -10.1. In that survey, the business climate index fell to -38.8, “suggesting the business climate remains much worse than normal,” the New York Fed said.

Stock market futures lost ground following the data releases.

—Jeff Cox

Here are some of the names making the biggest moves in the premarket:

• Snap, Meta — Snap gained 6% and Meta rose 1.6% after the Biden administration said competitor TikTok could be banned in the U.S. unless it is sold by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, CNBC confirmed, citing a person familiar with the matter.
• Dollar General — The discount retailer dropped nearly 2% after its fourth-quarter same-store sales missed Wall Street’s estimates. Same-store sales rose 5.7% in the quarter, versus the 6% expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• UiPath — The automation software company rallied more tan 15% after its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 15 cents beat the 6 cents expected, per StreetAccount. Revenue came in at $308.5 million, well above the $278.6 million expect.

To see more stocks making moves in the premarket, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

The ever-shifting market on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates next week now is indicating that a quarter percentage point move higher is likely.

Traders assigned a 74% probability of a 0.25 percentage point, or 25 basis point, increase when the Federal Open Market Committee releases its decision Wednesday, according to CME Group data shortly before 7:30 a.m. ET.

The fed funds futures market has been highly volatile over recent days, with expectations vacillating between the quarter-point hike and no increase.

Though the market is now looking for an increase in March, it doesn’t expect much after that.

Futures contracts implied a peak, or terminal, rate of 4.88% in May, then that number sliding through the year to 3.97% by December, indicating a likelihood of rate cuts ahead.

—Jeff Cox

Wall Street analysts were split on whether they should buy into Credit Suisse following the bank announcing it would borrow up to nearly $54 billion to shore up liquidity.

JPMorgan’s Roberto Henriques reiterated an overweight rating on the bank, noting he expects that the “central bank bazooka” will assuage investors concerned over liquidity issues and give Credit Suisse enough time to roll out a restructuring plan.

Analysts at Bank of America and RBC Capital Markets, however, were not as optimistic.

Check out our full story on CNBC Pro.

— Sarah Min

Traders at JPMorgan broke down why they think Credit Suisse’s situation is not like Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis.

“There are some glaring differences,” they wrote. “(i) US and EU banks are well capitalized, so this is primarily an issue of confidence; (ii) the Fed/Treasury have an existing playbook and can put together a sizable response overnight. It should not surprise to see the $25bn BTFP increased and then levered up. (iii) derivatives exposure is materially lower today than in the lead up to GFC.”

Global markets were rocked Wednesday after Credit Suisse’s largest investor said it would not provide further assistance. Overnight, the bank said it would borrow up to roughly $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank to shore up short-term liquidity.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

European markets opened higher Thursday as regional investors breathed a sigh of relief after the Swiss National Bank said it would provide a liquidity backstop to beleaguered bank Credit Suisse.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 1% higher. Most sectors and major bourses opened on a positive note, with gains led by a rally in bank stocks, which were up 2.8%. Oil and gas and retail stocks were up 1.6%.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton