US close: Stocks finish higher as Fed hints at rate hold

US stocks finished in the green on Thursday, as investors digested a speech from the US central bank's number two official and amid weak readings on US corporate profits and for pending home sales.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session up 0.17% at 25,169.88, the S&P 500 added 0.21% to 2,788.86, and the Nasdaq 100 was 0.4% higher at 7,245.40.

In the wake of the recent inversion in the US Treasury yield curve on the back of global growth concerns triggered by the US-China trade spat, investors had a close eye on a speech from the US central bank's number two official, Richard Clarida.

He spoke at The Economic Club of New York at 1800 BST, as traders were seeking guidance on what the Federal Reserve's next steps might be.

Clarida suggested that the Fed’s interest rate policy was in the right place given the state of the US economy, but did caution that things could change if conditions deteriorated.

“If the incoming data were to show a persistent shortfall in inflation below our 2% objective or were it to indicate that global economic and financial developments present a material downside risk to our baseline outlook, then these are developments that the [Fed] would take into account in assessing the appropriate stance for monetary policy,” Clarida said.

The ongoing trade spat with Beijing also remained in focus, with China's vice foreign minister Zhang Hanhui saying overnight that Beijing was against the use of "big sticks" like sanctions, tariffs or protectionism.

"We oppose a trade war but are not afraid of a trade war,” he said.

“This kind of deliberately provoking trade disputes is naked economic terrorism, economic homicide, economic bullying.”

He also accused the US of "economic terrorism".

"This Thursday, China has ramped up trade rhetoric aimed at Washington," said Dean Popplewell, vice-president of market analysis at Oanda.

“The much-watched yield gap between US three-month and 10-year Treasury bills is sending a warning signal of impending recession now that it slid to a 12-year low yesterday.”

While it was not necessarily a new measure, on Thursday Bloomberg reported that China had stopped resuming purchases of US soybeans that had been undertaken as a show of good faith.

In terms of fresh economic data, alongside its revised first quarter GDP data, the Commerce Department said that corporate profits declined at a quarterly annualised pace of 10.8% - its worst showing since the last three months of 2015.

According to the Commerce Department, America's GDP expanded at a quarterly annualised pace of 3.1% in the first three months of 2019, which was only a dash lower than its preliminary estimate of 3.2%.

A preliminary estimate for core PCE inflation was revised lower, from 1.7% to 1.6%.

On the corporate front, top officials at the Department of Justice want T-Mobile and Sprint to help launch a new wireless operator - with its own network - in exchange for greenlighting their $26.5bn tie-up, Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the matter.

Sprint shares were ahead 5.29%.

Still in the same sector, shares of Verizon Communications were knocked 2.34% lower by a downgrade out of UBS from 'buy' to 'neutral'.

Dow Jones - Risers

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $199.24 1.67%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $49.25 1.30%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $44.73 1.13%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $105.33 1.09%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $53.57 0.73%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $125.73 0.63%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $132.11 0.59%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $191.10 0.57%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $79.24 0.52%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $178.30 0.52%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $56.83 -2.32%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $115.38 -1.14%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $50.55 -1.13%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $107.06 -1.07%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $128.40 -0.80%
3M Co. (MMM) $160.58 -0.49%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $187.45 -0.36%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $71.97 -0.26%
American Express Co. (AXP) $116.70 -0.21%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $129.56 -0.09%

S&P 500 - Risers

Keysight Technologies Inc. (KEYS) $79.49 11.31%
Dollar General Corp (DG) $127.00 7.16%
Sba Communications Corp. (SBAC) $212.61 4.34%
Total System Services Inc. (TSS) $122.98 4.03%
Global Payments Inc. (GPN) $152.95 3.51%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $28.72 3.50%
CBS Corp. (CBS) $48.20 3.19%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $98.31 3.14%
CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $10.70 2.88%
Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) $92.90 2.88%

S&P 500 - Fallers

PVH Corp. (PVH) $84.49 -14.87%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $43.08 -5.05%
Cimarex Energy Co (XEC) $59.13 -4.51%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $27.40 -4.46%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $17.21 -4.39%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $25.78 -3.99%
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) $47.09 -3.84%
Halliburton Co. (HAL) $22.17 -3.61%
HollyFrontier Corp (HFC) $39.60 -3.39%
Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $13.62 -3.27%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $98.31 3.14%
Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) $92.90 2.88%
Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $207.91 2.30%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $170.26 2.23%
Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $328.46 1.98%
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $34.68 1.79%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $105.45 1.74%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $78.74 1.48%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $75.01 1.43%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $372.31 1.41%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $27.40 -4.46%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $17.21 -4.39%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $111.43 -2.59%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $24.37 -2.17%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $23.99 -1.92%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $12.70 -1.70%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $50.55 -1.13%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $111.82 -1.00%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $43.56 -0.98%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $139.11 -0.88%