the sp 500 is trading back above 4000 us stocks rebounded on thursday with the dow rising 450 points and the sp 500 reclaiming the 4000 level as investors shook off concerns about bankingsector stability and the impact of an expected credit crunch the dow fell 530 points on wednesday as treasury secretary janet yellens remark that her department hadnt discussed blanket protections for bank deposits appeared to overshadow the federal reserves latest interestrate hike stocks soared to session highs in latemorning trading thursday as investors reassessed the markets negative reaction to wednesdays events the sp 500 had tumbled wednesday afternoon after yellen told a senate committee that blanket deposit insurance hadnt been considered or discussed by her department but stock futures bounced overnight after citigroup ceo jane fraser pushed back against creditcrisis fears while speaking at the economic club of washington dc this is not a credit crisis this is a situation where its a few banks that have some problems fraser said her comments appeared to have a calming effect on markets said rich farr chief market strategist at merion capital group during a phone interview with marketwatch he credited her remarks for helping to push us stock futures and asian markets higher overnight economic data released thursday showed the number of americans applying for unemployment benefits last week declined to 191000 the lowest number in three weeks new data released thursday showed newhome sales of 640000 in february compared with a revised 633000 in january the data helped assuage investors concerns about the outlook for the economy and labor market after federal reserve chair jerome powell said he thought a credit squeeze inspired by the failure of three regional banks could potentially hurt the economy and labor market even as it helped to curtail inflation powell also said the banking system is sound and that deposit outflows had stabilized the fed raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 475 to 5 on wednesday just as the market had expected but powell made clear he disagreed with investors bets that the central bank would cut interest rates repeatedly before the end of 2023 rate cuts are not in our base case powell said stephen innes managing partner at spi asset management said the lift in stocks was a sign that investors were holding out hope that powell would eventually be proven wrong us futures are nudging higher as the market bets the fed loses its nerve and downshifts anyway note the modernday history book of fed pauses is very bullish for stocks innes said in emailed commentary outside the us both the swiss national bank and bank of england delivered interestrate hikes less than 24 hours after the feds the swiss central bank lifted borrowing costs by 50 basis points after local authorities helped put together a hastily arranged deal for ubs group ubs to take over scandalscarred crosstown rival credit suisse group csgneb credit suisse shares have fallen by 90 over the past year according to factset in the uk the bank of england raised its policy rate by 25 basis points its 11th consecutive increase see alsocoinbases stock tumbles on sec warning while first republic and regeneron shares rally and other stocks on the move this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal