US equity markets settled with modest gains after staging a big intra-day recovering following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish congressional testimony that relieved some concerns around higher interest rates and inflation – Dow eked out a +15-point or +0.05% gain, erasing an earlier decline of over >360-points. The broader S&P500 added +0.13%, recovering from an earlier -1.8% drop. Energy (up +1.61%) once again sat atop the primary sector leaderboard and led seven of the eleven primary sectors higher. Consumer Discretionary (down -0.49%) and Information Technology (-0.25%) were the worst performing sectors. Tesla Inc settled -2.2% lower and moved into negative territory for the year, dropping as much as -13% earlier in the session. The Nasdaq lost -0.52%, paring an earlier 3.9% decline that saw the technology-centric index fall below its 50-day moving average for the first time since 3 November last year. Apple Inc dipped -0.11% after sliding as much as -6% earlier in the session hosted their annual shareholders meeting The small capitalisation Russell 2000 index fell -0.88%.
