US stocks fall but close mostly higher for the week despite ongoing bank fallout

Mega-cap tech stocks became the new safety trade this week and helped power the Nasdaq 100 to its best weekly return since November.

• US stocks finished the week mostly higher despite continued fallout from multiple bank failures.
• Banks borrowed $165 billion from the Federal Reserve's backstop program to shore up liquidity.
• But strength in mega-cap tech stocks helped catapult the Nasdaq 100 to its best weekly gain since November.

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US stocks fell on Friday but finished mostly higher for the week as a continued fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank tests the resilience of equities.

The Nasdaq 100 finished the week up nearly 6% while the S&P 500 was up about 1% as mega-cap tech stocks became the new safety trade, with investors flocking to familiar names like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple, among others.

The Federal Reserve said late Thursday that it lent a combined $165 billion to various US banks as they took advantage of their emergency backstop policies in a bid to shore up liquidity. The Fed's balance sheet rose by nearly $300 billion over the past week, essentially giving up half the progress it has made in reducing its balance sheet over the past year.

First Republic Bank shored up liquidity via a $30 billion capital infusion from major US banks like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America, among others. Still, the deal wasn't enough to stem the decline in First Republic Bank's stock, which fell 20% on Friday after it suspended its dividend.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Friday:

• S&P 500: 3,916.64, down 1.10%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 31,861.98, down 1.19% (384.57 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 11,630.51, down 0.74%

Here's what else happened today:

• SVB Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, a week after former unit Silicon Valley Bank was shut down by regulators.
• Executives at Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank sold millions worth of stock right before the crash.
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell blocked a statement on regulatory failings that led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to a report from the New York Times.
• Credit Suisse shares resumed their decline on Friday, losing hold of the previous day's rally in a sign investors aren't convinced the embattled Swiss banking giant is out of the woods yet.
• Russian fuel has been put into floating storage due to a lack of buyers, with as much as 1.9 million barrels of its diesel stranded at sea.
• Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has urged the Federal Reserve to press ahead with its battle against inflation despite the turmoil caused by Silicon Valley Bank's recent failure.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 2.85% to $66.40 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, dropped 3.04% to $72.43.
• Gold rose 2.96% to $1,979.90 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank 19 basis points to 3.39%.
• Bitcoin rose 3.98% to $26,861, while ether jumped 1.84% to $1,744.