New York, Mar 28 (AP) US futures are flat in light trading Tuesday as anxiety over the strength of the global banking sector, triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, eased.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 shifted between small gains and losses before the bell.

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Markets have been in turmoil following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, the second-largest US bank failure in history, earlier this month, and then the third-largest failure, by New York-based Signature Bank.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold the first formal congressional hearing Tuesday on the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and New York-based Signature Bank and the shortcomings of supervision and regulation, by the Fed and other agencies, that preceded them.

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The committee will also likely question Barr and other officials about the government's response, including its emergency decision to insure all the deposits at both banks, even as the vast majority exceeded the USD 250,000 limit.

The fear is that a weakened banking sector will lead to a pullback in lending to small and midsized businesses across the country. That in turn could lead to less hiring, less growth and a higher risk of a recession. Many economists were already expecting an economic downturn before all the struggles for banks.

The Federal Reserve has pulled its key overnight rate to a range of 4.75 per cent to 5 per cent, up from virtually zero at the start of last year. It indicated last week that the troubles in the banking system could end up acting like rate hikes on their own, by slowing lending.

Huge, quick swings in expectations for the Fed have caused historic-sized moves in the bond market.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans, rose to 3.56 per cent from 3.37 per cent late Friday. It was above 4 per cent earlier this month. The yield on the 2-year Treasury rose to 4.01 per cent from 3.77 per cent late Friday.

France's CAC 40 added 0.2 per cent at midday, as did Germany's DAX. Britain's FTSE 100 inched up 0.1 per cent.

Asian shares finished higher. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2 per cent to finish at 27,518.25. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.0 per cent to 7,034.10. South Korea's Kospi added 1.1 per cent to 2,434.94. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.9 per cent to 19,751.94, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2 per cent to 3,245.38.

“Asian equities were positive on Tuesday, lifted by mostly higher major indices in the previous session. Receding fears surrounding the banking crisis and surging oil prices led to solid risk-taking flows,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude added 32 cents to USD 73.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained USD 3.55 to USD 72.81 per barrel on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 23 cents to USD 77.99 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar fell to 131.17 Japanese yen from 131.56 yen. The euro cost USD 1.0823, up from USD 1.0804.

On Monday, the S&P 500 eked out a 0.2 per cent gain led by bank and energy stocks. The Dow industrials rose 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5 per cent, reflecting losses in Google parent Alphabet and other tech companies. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)