The S&P 500 traded higher on Thursday as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said regulators are ready to take additional steps to protect customers’ bank deposits if the need arises.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to between 4.75% and 5% at its March meeting.

Block, Inc. Q Shares fell around 15% on Thursday after Hindenburg Research issued a brief report on the stock. coin base Global, Inc. COIN Shares fell 14% after the company received a Wells Notice from the SEC alleging violations of federal securities laws regarding the company’s spot market and staking service.

Most sectors in the S&P 500 ended negatively, with energy and utility stocks posting the biggest losses on Thursday. However, shares in communications services and information technology ended significantly higher during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.29% to close at 12,729.23 on Thursday amid gains microsoft corp MSFT And apple inc AAPL.

The S&P 500 was up 0.30%, while the Dow Jones was up 0.23% to 32,105.25 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rose 1.6% to 22.61 points on Thursday.

What is the CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as the VIX, is a measure of stock market volatility expectations based on call and put options of the S&P 500 index options.

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