Stock market today: Dow rides relief in banks to close higher, but tech wobbles

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The Dow closed higher Monday as a sense of relief swept across stocks after First Citizens BancShares struck a deal to purchase failed Silicon Valley Bank, though a wobble in big tech kept some gains in check. 

The rose 0.6% or 194 points, the fell 0.5%, and the  rose 0.1%.

First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:) purchased all the remaining assets, deposits and loans of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, for $72 billion, representing a discount of $16.5B.

First Citizens BancShares, which is expected to move into the top 20 U.S. banks following the move, jumped more than 53%. As well as the SVB deal, reports that U.S. officials are exploring the Federal Reserve expanding its emergency lending facility to regional banks also boosted sentiment.  

Other regional banks surged, with First Republic Bank (NYSE:) up 12%, Comerica (NYSE:) up nearly 6%, while Bank of America Corp (NYSE:) gained 5%.

A stutter in tech kept gains in the broader market in check as Treasury had a rip-roaring start to the week after Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard talked up the prospect of higher rates at a time when many in the market bet on cuts later this year. 

“Bullard’s comments over the weekend (ie: 5.75% terminal rate) may be contributing to higher short-term rate pressures,” Scotiabank Economics said in a note.

“[P]ricing for the May meeting has moved up by 5–6 basis points at the end of Friday to about 11bps now such that about half of a quarter point hike is being priced.”

Apple (NASDAQ:), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:) were in the red.

Pinterest (NYSE:), meanwhile, was up more than 2% after UBS upgraded the social media stock to buy, with a price target of $35, up from $27, citing evidence of improved advertising efficiency.

“We think ad tech moves – including but not limited to partner monetization – stand to drive a step function improvement in revenue growth,” UBS said in a note.

Novartis (NYSE:) jumped 8% after the drugmaker said results from its late-stage trial showed its breast cancer drug “significantly reduced” the risk of recurrence in women.

In cryptocurrency-related news, the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission filed a lawsuit on Monday against crypto exchange Binance and its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, for allegedly selling unregistered crypto securities in the U.S.

The lawsuit comes just less than a week after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission threatened to sue Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:) for allegedly listing unregistered securities.