US open: Stocks higher following FOMC decision

Wall Street trading got off to a positive start on Thursday as investors continued to feast on corporate earnings and another slew of data points.

As of 1540 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.38% at 38,047.02, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.30% to 5,033.48 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.57% firmer at 15,694.28.

The Dow opened 143.73 points higher on Thursday, building on gains recorded in the previous session after the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates steady for a little longer. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell ruled out interest rate hikes as the central bank's next move, despite a lack of signs pointing to easing inflation of late.

For Thursday, in the corporate space, chipmaker Qualcomm traded higher on better-than-expected adjusted earnings and strong revenue guidance, food delivery firm DoorDash was in the red after posting a wider-than-expected loss per share, and shares in used-car retailer Carvana surged after reporting its best earnings on record.

Apple and Amgen will both report earnings after the close.

On the macro front, the number of Americans lining up for unemployment benefits was unchanged at 208,000 in the week ended 27 April, according to the Labor Department, remaining at the lowest level in two months and firmly below market expectations for a reading of 212,000. Continuing claims also held steady at 1.77m, the lowest reading since January, while the four-week-moving average for initial claims, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,500 to 210,000.

Elsewhere, US employers announced 64,789 cuts in April, down 28% from March's 14-month high of 90,309 and the 66,995 cuts announced at the same time a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The reading was still consistent with a tight labour market, but with labour costs continuing to rise, companies will probably be slower to hire and likely to make further cuts in the coming months.

On another note, America's shortfall in trade with the rest of the world was little changed in March, as both exports and imports suffered large declines. According to the Department of Commerce, the trade deficit in goods and services dipped by 0.1% month-on-month to reach $69.4bn. Economists had forecast a deficit of -$69.4bn. Exports shrank 2.0% to reach $257.6bn, while imports were down by 1.6% at $327.0bn.

Moving on, US workers' productivity slowed more sharply than anticipated at the start of 2024, pushing labour costs much higher. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms labour productivity grew at a quarter-on-quarter pace of 0.3% over the three months ending in March (consensus: 0.8%) - principally due to an unexpected decline in output growth to 1.3% during the first quarter. Unit labour costs, the result of subtracting productivity growth from hourly compensation, was left running at a clip of 4.7% during the quarter (consensus: 3.2%).

Finally, new orders for US-manufactured goods rose by 1.6% to $584.5bn in March, according to the Census Bureau, following a 1.2% increase in February. New orders expanded by 2.6% for durable goods industries, while non-durable goods orders rose by 0.6%.

Traders were also looking ahead to Friday's closely watched April jobs report.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Boeing Co. (BA) $175.88 2.57%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $92.22 2.09%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $171.68 1.41%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $59.56 1.20%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $161.20 0.98%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $487.42 0.68%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $111.22 0.67%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $62.29 0.59%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $270.22 0.57%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $429.33 0.56%

Dow Jones - Fallers

3M Co. (MMM) $96.97 -1.49%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $163.20 -0.75%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $191.03 -0.43%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $150.68 -0.33%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $39.10 -0.27%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $46.78 -0.13%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $277.35 -0.01%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $213.18 0.01%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $331.13 0.02%

S&P 500 - Risers

CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW) $84.26 16.89%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $179.27 9.24%
Borg Warner Inc. (BWA) $35.72 8.66%
Sealed Air Corp. (SEE) $34.74 8.22%
Kellanova (K) $61.63 8.15%
Zoetis Inc (ZTS) $168.70 6.44%
Westrock Company (WRK) $50.73 5.91%
MGM Resorts International (MGM) $41.74 5.01%
Ventas Inc. (VTR) $45.33 3.47%
Estee Lauder Co. Inc. (EL) $131.76 3.45%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) $97.44 -12.91%
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (SWK) $84.46 -8.10%
Baxter International Inc. (BAX) $37.25 -7.66%
Ametek Inc. (AME) $163.26 -6.16%
Mosaic Company (MOS) $28.34 -5.31%
MetLife Inc. (MET) $68.73 -4.38%
DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $28.88 -4.31%
Parker-Hannifin Corp. (PH) $520.30 -4.17%
CVS Health Corp (CVS) $54.10 -3.93%
CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) $74.93 -3.90%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $179.27 9.24%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $31.23 6.68%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $108.74 4.24%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $0.87 3.67%
Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $252.24 2.97%
Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $50.16 2.91%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $96.43 2.56%
Asml Holdings N.V. (ASML) $870.53 2.07%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $36.88 1.65%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $917.19 1.52%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $28.88 -4.31%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $69.02 -2.11%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $50.09 -1.90%
Cintas Corp. (CTAS) $651.64 -1.80%
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $243.50 -1.55%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $177.64 -1.31%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $105.30 -0.98%
Synopsys Inc. (SNPS) $517.14 -0.97%
Paychex Inc. (PAYX) $118.32 -0.92%
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $141.44 -0.91%