US stocks move higher as investors weigh latest earnings against economic outlook
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- US stocks edged higher on Thursday as the S&P500 seeks to end a seven-week losing streak.
- Investors weighed ongoing concerns about an economic recession against strong earnings results from retailers.
- Dollar General and Dollar Tree soared more than 10% after reporting better-than-expected results.
US stocks edged higher on Thursday, extending gains from Wednesday's session as investors seek to end a seven-week losing streak in the S&P 500.
The move higher on Thursday came as investors continue to weigh the possibility of an economic recession against strong earnings results from retail companies like Dollar Tree and Dollar General, which both soared more than 10% in Thursday trades.
First-quarter GDP was revised slightly lower, to a contraction of 1.5% from its initial reading of a 1.4% decline, but retail sales were revised higher, signaling that consumers have not slowed down in their spending habits despite rising inflation and higher interest rates.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 4,001.60, up 0.53%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 32,372.40, up 0.78% (252.12 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 11,456.59, up 0.19%
Recession worries have yet to show up in weekly jobless claims, which fell 8,000 in the week ending May 21 to 210,000. That's about the same level weekly jobless claims were at prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
Tech stocks continue to have a difficult time navigating the ongoing market decline, and that was more apparent after Nvidia released its first-quarter earnings results. The company beat expectations but gave lower second-quarter guidance due to the Russia-Ukraine war and disruptions amid China's COVID-19 lockdown. Nvidia fell by about 5% in early Thursday trades.
Twitter stock rose more than 5% on Thursday after Elon Musk fronted more of his own wealth to fund his $44 billion buyout offer. Musk will put up another $6.25 billion of equity for the deal, lifting the total to $33.5 billion from an initial $27.25 billion, according to an SEC 13D filing on Wednesday.
Terra supporters have voted to approve founder Do Kwon's plan for a new blockchain for its luna cryptocurrency, without reviving the failed stablecoin terraUSD. The plan calls for a hard fork of the existing Terra blockchain. The proposal ditches the terraUSD (UST) stablecoin, whose collapse helped spur a wider sell-off in crypto markets.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as much as 1.46% to $111.94 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose as much as 0.94% to $115.10.
Bitcoin fell 5.28% to $28,230. Ether prices fell 9.31% to $1,765.
Gold fell as much as 0.11% to $1,844.20 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was flat at 2.75%.
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