US open: Stocks waver as investors rake through earnings, data

US stocks wavered on Thursday, slowing from yesterday’s gains as investors raked through another batch of earnings and data releases, while the dollar rose.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.15% to 20,098.64, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were flat at 2,298.58 and 5,656.43, respectively, at 1524 GMT.

On Wednesday, the Dow powered through the 20,000 mark for the first time, closing up 0.8% at 20,068.51, buoyed by some well-received corporate news and optimism over Donald Trump’s policies, including lax regulation, increased infrastructure spending and tax cuts.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “After yesterday’s record breaking session US markets opened in a somewhat mixed manner today with company earnings taking centre stage as weekly jobless claims surprisingly jumped to 259,00 from last week’s 237,000. Despite this we’ve still managed to put in new record highs on both the Dow and S&P 500.

“The dollar has enjoyed a bit of a rebound after hitting eight week lows against a basket of currencies, with the Japanese yen amongst the bigger losers today, as yield differentials widen out in the dollars favour.”

The greenback rose 0.61% against the euro to 0.9361, was up 0.47% versus the pound to 0.7952, and gained 1.17% against the yen to 113.69.

Meanwhile, oil prices advanced, with West Texas Intermediate up 2.07% at $53.87 a barrel and Brent crude 2.2% firmer at $56.32.

In corporate news, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was up 0.09% after it reported that fourth quarter profit doubled, whereas Ford Motor was down 2.46% as the carmaker missed profit expectations and softened its outlook for 2017

Comcast, the parent company of NBC Universal, rose 3.62% after it reported that it beat fourth quarter earnings estimates.

Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 1.76% after the drugmaker cut its guidance for the year

Biogen rose 2.37% despite reporting that quarterly revenue fell short of expectations due to costs related to its multiple sclerosis drug.

Caterpillar slipped 0.18% after beating earnings expectations but trimmed its outlook after its losses widened.

Ebay surged 7.13% after it posted solid earnings late on Wednesday, while telecommunications group AT&T was also in the black after well-received fourth-quarter numbers.

Chip maker Qualcomm slipped 3.52% on the back of a weak second-quarter outlook.

Johnson & Johnson was down 0.63% after it agreed to buy Switzerland’s Actelion for $30bn.

Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Intel and Starbucks, are due to report after the close.

On the data front, initial jobless claims increased by 22,000 to 259,000 in the week ended 21 January, which was below the 245,000 expected. Claims for the earlier week were revised up to 237,000 from an initial reading of 234,000.

The trade balance, excluding services, fell 0.5% to $65bn in December, while wholesale inventories rose 1%.

IHS Markit’s services purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.1 in January from 53.9 a month earlier, analyst had expected a reading of 54.4.

New home sales fell 10.4% to 536,000 units in December, a 10 month low. November's sales pace was revised up to 598,000 units from an initial 592,000 units. Analysts had expected a 1.2 drop to 585,000.