US open: Major indices mixed as investors take profits following solid tech earnings

Wall Street stocks were mostly in the green early on Thursday, with market participants snapping up some profits after some better-than-expected big tech earnings overnight.

As of 1545 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.03% at 33,830.68, while the S&P 500 was 0.24% stronger at 4,193.05 and the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 0.10% weaker at 14,037.40..

The Dow opened 10.30 points higher on Thursday, doing little to change losses recorded in the previous session that came despite the Federal Reserve announcing the continuation of its current easy policy, holding interest rates near zero, even while acknowledging that the US economy was accelerating.

Strong quarterly results from Apple and Facebook initially drove stocks higher on Thursday, with Apple revealing that sales had jumped 54% during the quarter, with each product category seeing double-digit growth, while Facebook said revenues surged 48%, driven by higher-priced ads in the quarter.

Caterpillar shares were in the red despite blowing past expectations, while Comcast shares were trading higher after it also beat earnings expectations with its latest quarterly figures.

Fast-food giant McDonald's quarterly revenues also topped pre-Covid levels, driven by the US' vaccine rollout and a resulting strong economic recovery throughout the quarter.

Still to come in what will be the busiest day of the quarterly earnings season, Amazon, Gilead Sciences, Twitter and Western Digital will publish their latest quarterly results after the close of trading.

Elsewhere in the corporate space, Carnival and Norwegian shares steamed ahead in early trade after the Centers for Disease Control stated sailings from US ports could recommence in mid-July.

On the macro front, an advance reading of the US' first-quarter gross domestic product revealed economic activity had boomed at the beginning of 2021, with widespread vaccinations and government spending began to help the US economy claw back to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Commerce Department, gross domestic product jumped 6.4% on an annualised basis in the first three months of 2021, which, outside of the reopening-fuelled third-quarter surge in 2021, was the best period for GDP since 2003.

Elsewhere, the much-watched weekly jobless claims report revealed that claims had fallen again in the week ended 24 April, hitting their lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. Initial unemployment claims fell 13,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted clip of 553,000, according to the Labor Department, marking a third straight week jobless claims were below 600,000, their lowest levels since early 2020. The previous week's figure was revised up to 566,000,

Lastly, pending homes sales grew at a slower than forecast print in March, indicating that a lack of available properties was keeping buyers sidelined despite phenomenal demand. According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales increased 1.9% month-on-month to 111.3, well and truly short of estimates for a 4.4% gain.

Federal Reserve heads Randal Quarles and John Williams will deliver comments throughout the course of the day following the conclusion of the central bank's two-day policy meeting a day earlier.

Thursday will also be Joe Biden's 100th day in the Oval Office, with the President making his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday where he pushed his $2.0trn infrastructure plan and his newly unveiled $1.8trn plan for families, children and students.