Market Volatility Falls Further Following Powell's Testimony; S&P 500 Records Gains

The S&P 500 settled higher on Thursday following comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The Fed chair stuck to the message delivered the day before to the House Financial Services Committee, stating that two further interest rate increases might be warranted if the economy performs as expected.

U.S. initial jobless claims came in at 264,000 for the week ending June 17, unchanged from a revised higher level of 264,000 the prior week and slightly above expectations of 260,000.

The Bank of England announced a higher-than-expected 50 basis point rate increase to combat inflation.

Major sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with consumer discretionary and communication services stocks recording the biggest gains on Thursday. However, energy and real estate stocks closed lower during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.18% to close at 15,042.32 on Thursday, amid gains in shares of Apple Inc AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

The S&P 500 rose 0.37%, while the Dow Jones dropped 0.01% to 33,946.71 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 2.2% to close at 12.91 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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