Morning Report 18 Mar 22: US shares lift as investor worries about rate hikes and Russian defaults ease

US sharemarkets climbed on Thursday. Sentiment was boosted after Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan processed Russian bond payments and sent the money on to Citigroup, taking a technical default off the table. Oil and gas producers Occidental Petroleum (+9.5%) and Devon Energy (+9.7%) led gains on the S&P 500 index as oil prices surged. The Dow Jones index closed higher by 418 points or 1.2%. The S&P 500 index also lifted by 1.2% and the Nasdaq index rose by 178 points or 1.3%. 

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