S&P 500 Settles Slightly Higher, Market Volatility Declines

The S&P 500 settled slightly higher on Wednesday following the release of economic reports.

In his second day of congressional testimony, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell repeated his message that interest rates could be increased faster than earlier expected.

The number of job openings fell by 410,000 to 10.824 million in January, while private businesses in the US added 242,000 jobs in February.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD shares gained around 3.2% on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued strong guidance. Multiple analysts also raised their price targets on the stock following the report.

Major sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with information technology and real estate stocks recording the biggest gains on Wednesday. However, energy and health care stocks were among the worst performers during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.52% to close at 12,215.33 on Wednesday, amid gains in shares of NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Apple Inc AAPL.

The S&P 500 rose 0.14%, while the Dow Jones lost 0.18% to 32,798.40 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 2.5% to 19.11 points on Wednesday.

What is CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as VIX, is a measure of the equity market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index call and put options.

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