S&P 500 inches higher as strong Bank of America results offset tech weakness By Reuters

By Bansari Mayor Kamdar and Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) – The benchmark index rose on Monday as Bank of America (NYSE:) wrapped up earnings for major US banks with better-than-expected quarterly earnings, although higher bond yields weighed on growth and technology stocks.

Shares of the second largest US bank by assets rose 3% as strong growth in the consumer lending business helped cushion the blow from the slowdown in dealmaking. Overall, the S&P 500 Banks Index is up 1.5%.

Market response to earnings from banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:) has been mixed, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE 🙂 and City Group You (NYSE: 🙂 put aside $3.36 billion in credit loss reserves due to the risks of the Ukraine war and high inflation.

The earnings will be good, but given the many years of high returns in the stock market, people are not looking for the good anymore. They are looking for the best,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, NJ.

“The fact remains that the pressures on the market will not go away. The combination of Fed policy, very high energy costs and the problems created by the Ukraine war will remain in the markets for the next few weeks unless there is some subtlety.”

Stocks include Megacap Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 and Microsoft Corporation The (NASDAQ) index fell as the benchmark index reached its highest level in December 2018 at 2.88% earlier in the session. The last rate was at 2.83%. [US/]

Market-leading technology and growth stocks have been under pressure lately as expectations of several rate hikes this year threaten to undermine future earnings for these companies.

Seven of Standard & Poor’s eleven major sectors advanced. Energy shares rose 1.6 percent, to lead percentage gains, with crude prices rising and exceeding $113 a barrel, as outages in Libya deepened concern about tight global supply. [O/R]

There was little hope for peace in Ukraine, as Russia bombed hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight, destroying command posts with air-launched missiles.

At 09:52 AM ET, it was up 132.23 points, or 0.38%, at 34.583.46, and the S&P 500 was up 6.84 points, or 0.16%, at 4,399.43, and it was down 49.83 points, or 0.37%, at 13,301.25.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:) Corp fell 9.1% after the financial services company failed to estimate its quarterly profit.

Twitter (NYSE:) is down 1% even as the micro-blogging platform adopted “poison pills” on Friday to restrict Tesla CEO Elon Musk from raising his stake to above 15% for one year.

Didi Global Inc fell 16.7% after the Chinese carrier said it would hold an extraordinary general meeting on May 23 to vote on its plans to delist in the United States.

Advance issues outnumbered losers by 1.02 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Declining issues outnumbered advancing stocks by 2.05 to 1 on the Nasdaq.

The S&P recorded 21 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and 229 new lows.