Morgans AM: Friday, 17 March 2023

US equity markets rallied as an agreement by a group of big banks to deposit US$30B with troubled lender First Republic Bank helped soothe fears of a rolling banking crisis - Dow gained +372-points or +1.2%, The broader S&P500 rose +1.80%, with Information Technology (up +2.82%) and Communication Services (+2.77%) rallying over >2.5% to lead nine of the eleven primary sectors higher. Consumer Staples (down -0.07%) and Real Estate (-0.06%) were the only primary sectors not to advance. Charles Schwab Corp fell -2.8% despite executives disclosing that they had bought nearly US$7M worth of the financial-services giant’s beaten-down stock. The Nasdaq continued to outperform, rallying +2.50%. The technology-centric index is up +5.19% thus far this week and is on track to log its best week of the calendar year-to-date. Adobe Inc gained +5.90% after the software company topped Wall Street expectations for the first quarter after the close of the previous session. Intel Corp climbed +6.23% after analysts at Susquehanna unwound their bearish call on the chip maker, writing that “things are moving enough in the right direction.” Nvidia Corp rallied +5.42%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -0.49.