S&P 500 Settles Higher, Market Volatility Decreases

The S&P 500 settled higher on Thursday amid a strong rebound in financial stocks.

First Republic Bank FRC announced a deal for $30 billion in deposits from major banks and said it has decided to suspend its dividend. The company’s stock added around 10% in regular trading session, but dipped around 18% in the after-hours trading session.

Credit Suisse CS said it is borrowing $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank to help shore up liquidity.

The European Central Bank, meanwhile, announced a 50 basis point rate hike at its latest meeting.

Majority of the sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a positive note, with communication services and information technology stocks recording the biggest gains on Thursday. However, consumer staples and real estate stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing slightly lower during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.69% to close at 12,581.39 on Thursday, amid gains in shares of Tesla Inc TSLA and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

The S&P 500 gained 1.76%, while the Dow Jones added 1.17% to 32,246.55 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) dropped 12.1% to 22.99 points on Thursday.

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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