Wall Street Closed Various, SVB Agreement Able To Raise Banking Shares

JAKARTA - Wall Street varies at the end of trading Monday (Tuesday morning 28 March WIB), with the S&P 500 index slightly strengthened as deals for the purchase of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) assets helped increase bank shares, while lower shares related to technology limited increases.

Quoting Antara, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index increased by 194.55 points or 0.6 percent, to settle at 32,432.08 points. The S&P 500 index rose 6.54 points or 0.16 percent, ending at 3,977.53 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 55.12 points or 0.47 percent, to close at 11,768.84 points.

Eight of the 11 main S&P 500 sectors ended up in the green zone, with energy and financial sectors boosted by 2.1 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, surpassing others. Meanwhile, the communication and technology services sector fell 1.08 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively, two groups with the worst performance.

The banking sector remains the focus on Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase & Co shares rose 2.9 percent and the Bank of America increased 5.0 percent. Both are among the stocks that gave S&P 500 the biggest boost on Monday 27 March.

First Citizens Shares of BancShares jumped more than 50 percent on Monday, after the North Carolina-based lender said it would acquire Silicon Valley Bank, a financier focused on technology that failed earlier this month and sparked banking turmoil.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rapidly, followed by continued pressure on regional banks, has made markets wary of other potentially vulnerable banks.

Also, First Republic Bank's shares jumped 11.8 percent after Bloomberg reported US authorities were considering more support for the bank, which could provide more time for First Republic which is struggling to shore up its balance sheet.

The US Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the bank's failure on Tuesday.

However, stocks of growth related to technology were lower and pressured Nasdaq to end up weakening with Apple's shares falling 1.2 percent.

Crypto stocks also fell after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said the Binance crypto exchange and CEO and its founder Changpeng Zhao had been sued by the CFTC for operating "illegal" exchanges and "fake" compliance programs.

Among other shareholders, Walt Disney's shares ended up 1.6 percent after the company started 7,000 layoffs announced earlier this year.

"There's still a lot going on in the financial sector, and this is actually good news today," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.

"But stocks of technology and growth have a very strong quarter, so there may be a profit-taking action as we head towards the end of the quarter."