Stocks end higher, First Republic faltering

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes advanced on Friday, despite another crushing session for beleaguered First Republic Bank - which a source now says is close to collapsing.

The FDIC is preparing to take over the troubled lender, deciding First Republic's position has deteriorated and that there is no more time to pursue a rescue through the private sector. That's according to the Reuters source.

Shares of First Republic shed more than 43% during the regular trading session.

First Republic and FDIC representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

First Republic would be the latest regional bank to fail, after Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, due to a run on deposits.

The broader banking sector, however, saw some gains on Friday - as did the broader market.

The Dow and S&P 500 each gained eight-tenths of a percent, while the Nasdaq gained seven-tenths.

Shares of ExxonMobile rose to an all-time high as the oil company reported a record first-quarter profit on rising oil and gas output, which more than compensated for lower energy prices.

Chris Konstantinos is Chief Investment Strategist and Director of Investments at Riverfront Investment Group.

"With the oil majors, our thesis has been that, you know, these companies don't need oil at 80 or $90 a barrel to be economic. These companies are pretty diversified - they have upstream and downstream businesses. [FLASH] It's our belief that if oil can stay, you know, in the 50 to $60.00 range, that the largest, highest quality players in this space will continue to make money and increasingly return that capital back to shareholders in the form of healthy dividends, which we think in this environment is a pretty attractive place for long term investors."

Shares of Intel rose as the once-dominant chipmaker showed signs of a turnaround after ceding market share to rivals and struggling with low margins.

On the flip side, Amazon's shares fell despite better-than-expected quarterly results, as it signaled its cloud computing business growth would slow further.

Data on Friday showed that underlying inflation pressures remained strong, feeding expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by 25 basis points next week.