By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The S&P 500 cut losses Thursday amid dip-buying in tech even as investors weighed up the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening plan and further pushback against Russia from the U.S. and its allies.

They rose 0.7% and gained 0.4% (or 145 points), respectively.

Tech stocks including Apple (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:),  Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Facebook (NASDAQ:) turned positive to help the broader market cut losses as investors appeared to buy the dip in big tech.    

HP (NYSE:) jumped more than 15% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) disclosed a 11.4% stake in company.

Twitter (NYSE:) meanwhile fell around 5%. It was a wide-based drop in communication services. The New York Times had reportedly instructed its journalists to reduce the amount of time that they spend on Twitter.

Treasury yields continued to add to recent gains as investors continued to digest the Fed’s plan to tighten monetary policy.

“The final size of the caps at $95 billion per month is somewhat larger than the $80 billion we were expecting…” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

“We continue to see the FOMC raising rates by 50 basis points at the May and June meetings this year, and by 25 basis points at each meeting thereafter for the balance of the year,” it added.

Banks stocks failed to capitalize on rising yields, which boosts their margins on lending, amid worries that the Fed’s hawkish plan to curb inflation could slow the economy into recession and lead to an increase in bad debt for banks.

Lincoln National (NYSE) Signature Bank SVB Financial (NASDAQ 🙂 and (NASDAQ 🙂 were the top decliners.

Wall Street sentiment was dampened by the fading hopes that an Ukraine-Russia ceasefire would be possible, as Moscow is stepping up its war in Eastern Ukraine.

In response to Russia’s ongoing war efforts, and unwillingness to deescalate the conflict, the United Nations Human Rights Council suspended Russia as a member.

U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, voted to ban imports of oil, gas and coal from Russia, and also to strip Russia of ‘most Favored Nations’ trade status, which could end normal trade with Russia, leading to higher tariffs.

Energy stocks were also positive after oil prices dropped to their lowest point of the day following a deal between the International Energy Agency member nations to allow 60 million barrels crude oil.

After reporting stronger-than-expected quarter results, Levi Strauss reported 0.5% less losses. This was due to strong demand which helped to reduce the effects of supply chain disruptions.