Stocks extend rally as Wall Street looks to end of quarter: Stock market news today

U.S. stocks moved higher Thursday, extending gains from the prior session, as Wall Street looked to round out the end of the year's first quarter on a high note.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.57% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) increased 0.43%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.73%.

"Right now, we are definitely benefiting from quarter-end window addressing," Louis Navellier, chief investment officer at Navellier, wrote in a note to clients. "This is the time of year when professional managers make their portfolios extra pretty because of their client reviews in April. So they are basically selling their losers and adding to the ones that have strong sales and earnings."

Bond yields were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note ticked down to 3.54%. On the front end of the yield curve, two-year yields jumped to 4.1%. The dollar index was down to $102.

Meanwhile, in a key signal that volatility has stabilized, the VIX moved below 20, as traders bet the banking fallout is mostly in the rear view.

The S&P 500 closed up 1.4% on Wednesday, above the levels last seen before the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco. Real estate and tech were the top-performing sectors, while gold and oil moved lower. Treasury yields were mixed, while the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX), which tracks the 100 largest companies by market cap — excluding financial sector firms — officially entered a bull market.

Intel (INTC) surged Wednesday after the company announced that its new server chips will come sooner than anticipated. Shares rose another 2% Thursday.

Also on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve's top banking regulator, Michael Barr, signaled that the central bank intends to maintain its stance in its “meeting-by-meeting judgment on rates” and that “incoming data” will continue to be analyzed. These comments were consistent with Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent remarks, which has driven market participants' expectations for a May rate hike to be little changed.