US close: Stocks mixed as more Q2 earnings roll in

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Thursday after snapping a two-day losing streak in the previous session.

At the close, the Dow Jones futures Industrial Average was down 0.26% at 32,726.82, while the S&P 500 was 0.08% weaker at 4,151.94 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.41% firmer at 12,720.58.

The Dow closed 85.68 points lower on Thursday after closing sharply higher in the previous session as a better-than-expected services PMI and comments from St Louis Fed president James Bullard boosted sentiment.

Stocks headed south on Thursday, with earnings firmly in focus again.

Eli Lilly missed quarterly estimates and cut full-year guidance amid lower prices for insulin and a drop in sales of its Covid-19 treatment, while Restaurant Brands beat on both the top and bottom lines with its latest quarterly figures.

Alibaba delivered better-than-expected quarterly numbers despite flat revenue growth due to Covid-19 lockdowns in China, Shake Shack dodged an expected loss with a breakeven quarter on an adjusted basis, Bombardier beat earnings estimates and raised full-year free cash flow forecasts, and ADT posted mixed Q2 earnings but reaffirmed its full-year guidance.

ConocoPhillips earnings topped $5.0bn as a blowout quarter for oil majors continues, while Kellogg beat on earnings and boosted revenues guidance, and Papa John's latest quarterly earnings saw the group came in ahead of estimates by a single cent.

On the macro front, Americans filed first-time jobless claims at an accelerated week-on-week clip in the seven days ended 30 July. According to the Labor Department, initial jobless claims rose by 6,000 to 260,000 last week, higher than market expectations for a print of 259,000.

With employment in mind, Challenger, Gray and Christmas revealed US firms had announced plans to cut 25,810 jobs from their payrolls in July, a 36.3% year-on-year increase and the second-highest number so far in 2022.

Finally, America's shortfall on trade with the rest of the world in goods and services shrank a bit more than expected in June amid a sharp jump in exports. According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, the foreign trade deficit fell 6.2% on the month to reach -$79.6bn. Economists had pencilled-in a deficit of -$81.5bn.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

3M Co. (MMM) $148.12 3.23%
Visa Inc. (V) $213.47 2.39%
American Express Co. (AXP) $156.89 0.94%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $191.35 0.90%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $183.64 0.42%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $283.65 0.42%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $307.17 0.26%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $114.48 0.18%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $0.00 0.00%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%