S&P 500 rises to a 3-week high as investors bet the banking crisis has stabilized: Live updates

The S&P 500 rose Thursday, as investors bet the worst of the regional bank crisis has passed.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to its highest since March 7, bringing its gain from the benchmark’s March low during the height of bank fears to about 6%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4% as tech stocks continued to see renewed investor interest.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded slightly higher by about 24 points.

The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street’s preferred measure of how turbulent the S&P 500 will be over the next 30 days, has pulled back to the 19 level after reaching 30 in the middle of March. Wall Street’s fear gauge is back to where it was when the month began.

Weekly jobless claims increased by 7,000 to 198,000, adding to hopes that the Federal Reserve could slow down its tightening campaign because the labor market is cooling.

Chip stocks such as AMD were among the market’s best performers. The VanEck Vector Semiconductor ETF (SMH) climbed 1.4% on Thursday, bringing its year-to-date gain to more than 28%.

Also in tech, shares of Amazon and Apple were higher.

For the month, the Nasdaq Composite is up more than 4% while the S&P 500 has gained nearly 2% as investors shook off the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and yet another rate increase from the Fed.

To be sure, some investors believe the market may be getting ahead of itself.

“Collectively, financial markets are pricing in the best of both worlds – a recession that allows rates to be low and brings inflation down sharply, yet one that does not have a massively negative effect on corporate earnings,” Barclays analyst Ajay Rajadhyaksha wrote in a Thursday note.