After an early move to the upside, stocks have shown a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday. The major averages have pulled back off their early highs, with the Nasdaq slipping into negative territory.
Currently, the major averages are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the Nasdaq is down 44.94 points or 0.2 percent at 19,587.38, the S&P 500 is up 6.02 points or 0.1 percent at 6,045.33 and the Dow is up 91.17 points or 0.2 percent at 44,804.69.
The lackluster performance on Wall Street comes amid a mixed reaction to earnings news from several big-name companies.
Shares of IBM Corp. (IBM) have skyrocketed by 13.6 percent after the tech giant reported fourth quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) is also seeing notable strength after reporting fourth quarter results that beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
On the other hand, shares of Microsoft (MSFT) have plunged by 6.1 percent after the software giant reported better than expected fiscal second quarter results but provided disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter.
Delivery giant UPS (UPS) has also shown a substantial move to the downside, plummeting by 17.5 percent after reporting fourth quarter earnings that beat expectations but forecasting full-year revenue below analyst estimates.
UPS also announced it has reached an agreement with Amazon (AMZN) to lower its volume by more than 50 percent by the second half of 2026.
In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 fell short of economist estimates.
The report said gross domestic product shot up by 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter after surging by 3.1 percent in the third quarter. Economists had expected GDP to jump by 2.6 percent.
The Commerce Department said the GDP growth in the fourth quarter primarily reflected increases in consumer spending and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in investment.
Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended January 25th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 207,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 223,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 220,000.
Sector News
Gold stocks have moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index soaring by 4.5 percent to its best intraday level in well over a month.
Substantial strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Interest rate-sensitive housing, commercial real estate and utilities stocks are also seeing significant strength, while the steep drop by Microsoft is weighing on the software sector.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Thursday, with many markets still closed for Lunar New Year. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed by 0.6 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both up by 0.9 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved higher after ending the previous session roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price is down by 3.7 basis points at 4.518 percent.
Business News
U.S. Stocks Experiencing Choppy Trading Amid Mixed Reaction To Earnings News
2025-01-30 15:59:59