Major Averages Turn Mixed After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session, the major U.S. stock indexes have turned mixed over the course of the course of the trading day on Monday.

While the Dow and the S&P 500 have remained in positive territory, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has pulled back well off its early highs and into the red.

Currently, the Nasdaq is off its worst levels but still down 51.24 points or 0.4 percent at 11,772.72. Meanwhile, the Dow is up 262.85 points or 0.8 percent at 32,500.38 and the S&P 500 is up 13.77 points or 0.4 percent at 3,984.76.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders looked to build on last week's gains as fears of a global banking crisis once again eased following the latest developments in the sector.

Shares of First Citizens BancShares (FCNCA) have soared after the company an agreement with the FDIC to purchase substantially all deposits and loans of failed Silicon Valley Bridge Bank.

The FDIC said the transaction included the purchase of about $72 billion of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank's assets at a discount of $16.5 billion.

U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche Bank (DB) have also shown a strong move back to the upside after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted the bank remains profitable and said there's no reason to doubt its future.

Buying interest has waned over the course of the session, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines.

Later in the week, traders are likely to keep a close eye on a report on personal income and spending in the month of February, as it includes a reading on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

With the Fed signaling last week that it expects just one more interest rate increase this year, traders will look to the data for clues about the timing of the final rate hike.

Sector News

Energy stocks have moved sharply higher over the course of the session, benefitting from a substantial increase by the price of crude oil.

With crude for May delivery surging $2.75 to $72.01 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index is up by 3.9 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index is up by 2.7 percent.

Significant strength also remains visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent jump by the KBW Bank Index.

Brokerage, chemical and pharmaceutical stocks are also seeing notable strength, while software and semiconductor have moved to the downside, contributing to the pullback by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both advanced by 0.9 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have shown a substantial pullback after moving sharply higher over the past few sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 14.6 basis points at 3.526 percent.