Wall Street is barreling toward a winning week — and month — as it closes out a rocky first quarter to 2023. All the major indexes are up this week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising about 2.7%. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up about 2.9% and 2.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, this month, the Dow is higher by more than 1.3% and the S & P 500 is up 2.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq outstripped the other indexes, up more than 6%. Those gains follow a regional banking crisis earlier this month that raised concerns of tightening credit conditions. Later, investors largely moved past those worries as they saw signs of easing inflation that could allow the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates. To that end, First Republic Bank was one of this week’s leading outperformers, jumping more than 12% as of late Friday as the San Francisco-based lender tried to rebound from its recent lows. To be sure, First Republic has a buy rating from just 27% of analysts covering the stock. Energy stocks outperformed this week on the back of higher oil prices, with the S & P 500 Energy Index up by almost 6%. Consumer discretionary and materials stocks also outperformed, up more than 4% each as a group. Communication services and health care stocks were the laggards of the week, although both were marginally higher. All 11 sectors in the S & P 500 advanced this week. Caesars Entertainment was the best performer in the S & P 500. The casino stock is closing out the week up by more than 13%, and is expected to surge another 52% to its average price target. It’s considered a buying opportunity from 66% of analysts covering the stock. Energy stocks that performed particularly well this week are Schlumberger N.V. and Devon Energy . Schlumberger N.V. shares are up more than 9% this week. Shares are expected to rally more than 30% to reach analysts’ average price target, according to consensus estimates from FactSet. It has a buy rating from 77% of Wall Street analysts. Devon Energy shares are more than 8% this week. The stock has about 33% upside to its average price target, and is considered a buy by 46% of analysts. Tech companies Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Intel also beat the market this week, up by more than 11% and 9%, respectively. Other stocks included on the list are Paycom Software and Delta Air Lines. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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