May 17 (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes rose on Wednesday after Western Alliance led a bounce among regional banks amid cautious optimism about a potential breakthrough in the deadlock in Washington over the nation’s debt limit.
Shares of U.S. regional banks rose, led by a 12.6% rise in Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL.N) as the lender’s deposit growth exceeded $2 billion and brokerage Bank of America Global Research resumed coverage of the bank with a “buy” rating.
PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O), Comerica Inc (CMA.N) and Zions Bancorporation NA (ZION.O) added between 9.2% and 6.5%.
The KBW Regional Banking Index (.KRX) rose 3.1% after losing 1.8% in the previous session, while S&P 500 banks (.SPXBK) added 2.4%.
U.S. President Joe Biden will continue talks with congressional leaders on the debt ceiling later this week, the White House said one day after an hour-long meeting seen as productive.
“Cautious optimism expressed from both President Biden and Speaker (Kevin) McCarthy about the progress of the debt talks has made people feel a little bit better,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
Retailers Target Corp(TGT.N) and TJX Companies Inc (TJX.N) forecast current-quarter profit below expectations despite beating estimates for the first quarter.
Shares of Target were up 1.4%, while the T.J. Maxx parent added 2.6% in choppy trading.
“Both (results) could be construed as not great, but certainly it could have been worse and not as negative as we saw from Home Depot yesterday,” James added.
The S&P 500 retail index (.SPXRT) rose 1.6%.
Home Depot (HD.N) and a reading on U.S. April retail sales that missed expectations highlighted the impact of higher prices and interest rates on consumers, weighing on Wall Street on Tuesday.
Investors will now await retail behemoth Walmart’s (WMT.N) earnings on Thursday. Its shares edged 0.2% lower.
At 9:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was up 127.58 points, or 0.39%, at 33,139.72, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was up 16.09 points, or 0.39%, at 4,125.99, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was up 36.63 points, or 0.30%, at 12,379.69.
Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) rose 1.9% after its annual shareholder meeting.
Top boss Elon Musk played down market rumors that he may step down as CEO of Tesla, touched upon two new mass-market models the company is developing, and reaffirmed that deliveries of its long-delayed Cybertruck pickup would start this year.
Meanwhile, U.S. single-family homebuilding increased in April, but data for the prior month was revised sharply lower, suggesting that the embattled housing market was struggling to find a floor, despite a retreat in mortgage rates.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.69-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 11 new 52-week highs and eight new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 25 new highs and 48 new lows.
Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel
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