US close: Nasdaq hits new record as tech and retail lead way

Investors chased the Nasdaq and S&P to new record closings highs on Thursday ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend, with the tech sector driving the gains to offset falling oil prices as Opec's production cut disappointed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.34% higher at 21,082.95, while the S&P 500 finished higher for a sixth successive day to set a new record, rising 0.44% to 2,415.07 and the Nasdaq Composite similarly ascended 0.69% to a new peak of 6,205.26.

While Europe remains becalmed US markets clock up new highs, despite the fact that European data has been much stronger of late than its US counterpart, observed market analyst Chris Beauchamp at IG.

"Amazon and Google find themselves locked in a race for $1000; tech firms continue to leave the old economy far behind, with momentum continuing to drive the sector higher," he said.

"In a bull market, you buy the strongest performing assets – with the Nasdaq 100 nearly a fifth higher year-to-date, it is clear that momentum lies here, leaving the staid S&P 500 and FTSE 100 far behind."

Markets also began the day on the front foot on the back of a week of gains and after the previous day's minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting that showed most members were in favour of a rate hike "soon" as long as the economy continues to rebound from first-quarter weakness.

What little data there was on Thursday was not enough to disrupt the positive mood, with initial weekly US unemployment claims rising by just 1,000 to 234,000, better than expected and marking a fourth straight week below 240,000.

That led Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics to muse that: "it's starting to look more like a shift in trend rather than just noise, but we still need more data to be sure".

Meanwhile, America's deficit in its trade in goods with the rest of the world widened by 3.8% to $67.6bn, according to the Census Bureau. Economists' forecasts were calling for a smaller shortfall of -$64.0bn.

Oil prices fell after Opec's agreement to extend an earlier 1.8m-barrel-a-day production cut by nine months did not seem long enough to satisfy oil traders, even if Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih said any deeper cuts were unnecessary.

West Texas Intermediate was down 5.2% to $48.68 a barrel and Brent crude was 5.0% lower at $51.27.

Analyst Neil Wilson at ETX Capital said a nine-month extension "just isn’t enough to really lift oil prices as we’ll continue to see US shale fill the gap" and with the oil cartel having said they’d do whatever it takes they were now "looking a bit toothless".

"Instead of deepening cuts they are continuing to tinker at the margins by curbing production by around 1.8m b/d along with several non-OPEC members. It also looks like no new non-OPEC members are joining the curbs, which would have helped."

Elsewhere among stocks, several members of the embattled retailer sector impressed, with Best Buy shooting higher as investors cheered stronger than expected profits, improved outlook and an unexpected rise in its like-for-like sales from the consumer electronic retailer, while Sears posted its first quarterly profit in two years sending its shares flying.

Discount retailer Dollar Tree was also trading on the front foot despite disappointing investors on most of its main financial metrics, including LFLs.

Hewlett Packard on the other hand was trading lower even after it reported the first simultaneous growth in its sales of printers and PCs since 2010.

Dow Jones - Risers

Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $178.05 1.40%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $123.72 1.37%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $69.62 1.24%
3M Co. (MMM) $199.54 1.04%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $105.01 1.03%
Boeing Co. (BA) $187.07 0.98%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $156.45 0.94%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $45.41 0.84%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $52.35 0.65%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $45.31 0.60%

Dow Jones - Fallers

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $77.39 -1.26%
General Electric Co. (GE) $27.49 -1.22%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $105.11 -1.05%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $81.75 -0.66%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $222.47 -0.61%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $85.35 -0.42%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $107.27 -0.41%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $31.44 -0.16%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $127.53 0.02%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $122.25 0.14%

S&P 500 - Risers

Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) $61.25 21.48%
PVH Corp. (PVH) $106.98 4.84%
Csra Inc. (CSRA) $31.01 4.62%
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) $119.77 4.18%
GameStop Corp. (GME) $23.62 4.01%
Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) $44.75 3.90%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $40.96 3.54%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $163.05 3.36%
Alliance Data Systems Corp. (ADS) $245.62 3.33%
Dollar General Corp (DG) $72.47 3.22%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Signet Jewelers Ltd (SIG) $50.31 -7.76%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $9.65 -7.57%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $12.29 -7.25%
Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $13.50 -7.09%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $5.18 -6.67%
Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) $33.13 -6.41%
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $29.39 -6.13%
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) $32.60 -5.40%
Brown Forman Corp. Class B (BF.B) $51.60 -5.04%
Halliburton Co. (HAL) $45.39 -4.82%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $293.04 4.47%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $163.05 3.36%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $53.79 2.79%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $48.02 2.67%
Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) $54.38 2.37%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $316.83 2.13%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (FOX) $27.23 2.10%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. - Ordinary Shares (NCLH) $50.68 2.10%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $50.76 1.74%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $27.33 1.71%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $98.50 -2.55%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $22.18 -1.03%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $116.75 -0.85%
Fastenal Co. (FAST) $43.29 -0.80%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $87.33 -0.80%
Liberty Global Plc Lilac Class A (LILA) $21.00 -0.71%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $455.70 -0.55%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $89.27 -0.48%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $173.76 -0.41%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $58.45 -0.32%