By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The S&P 500 cut losses Thursday amid dip-buying in tech even as investors weighed up the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening plan and further pushback against Russia from the U.S. and its allies.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%, or 145 points, the Nasdaq gained 0.4%.
Tech stocks including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) turned positive to help the broader market cut losses as investors appeared to buy the dip in big tech.
HP (NYSE:HPQ) jumped more than 15% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) disclosed a 11.4% stake in company.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), meanwhile, fell about 5% leading a broad-based decline in communication services after the New York Times reportedly told its newsroom staffers to 'meaningfully reduce' how much time they spend on the platform.
Treasury yields continued to add to recent gains as investors continued to digest the Fed’s plan to tighten monetary policy.
“The final size of the caps at $95 billion per month is somewhat larger than the $80 billion we were expecting…” Morgan Stanley said in a note.
“We continue to see the FOMC raising rates by 50 basis points at the May and June meetings this year, and by 25 basis points at each meeting thereafter for the balance of the year,” it added.
Banks stocks failed to capitalize on rising yields, which boosts their margins on lending, amid worries that the Fed’s hawkish plan to curb inflation could slow the economy into recession and lead to an increase in bad debt for banks.
Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC), Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY), SVB Financial (NASDAQ:SIVB) were the biggest decliners.
Sentiment on Wall Street was soured by fading expectations that a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire is within reach as Moscow appears to ramping-up its war efforts in Eastern Ukraine.
In response to Russia’s ongoing war efforts, and unwillingness to deescalate the conflict, the United Nations Human Rights Council suspended Russia as a member.
U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, voted to ban imports of oil, gas and coal from Russia, and also to strip Russia of ‘most Favored Nations’ trade status, which could end normal trade with Russia, leading to higher tariffs.
Energy stocks also turned positive as oil prices moved off the lows of the day after giving up gains following an agreement by International Energy Agency member countries to release 60 million barrels of crude.
In earnings news, Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI) cut losses to trade 0.5% lower after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results as strong demand eased the impact of loss sales owing to supply chain disruptions.