US open: Stocks in the green despite unexpected decline in GDP

dl exchange place wall st street pl new york city nyc ny nyse stock exchange dow jones sp nasdaq finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america — Exchange PlaceSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks traded higher early on Thursday as corporate earnings continued to stream in and investors digested an unexpected decline in first-quarter gross domestic product.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.17% at 33,359.55, while the S&P 500 was 0.45% firmer at 4,202.85 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.43% stronger at 12,542.42.

The Dow opened 57.62 points higher on Thursday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

In the corporate space, shares in Facebook parent company Meta Platforms rallied in early trading after the social media giant reported better than expected quarterly earnings overnight despite posting some disappointing earnings, while Qualcomm traded higher on the back of some strong quarterly earnings and PayPal stock advanced despite issuing weak second-quarter guidance.

As far as Thursday's earnings were concerned, Eli Lilly reported a quarterly earnings beat after Covid-19 antibodies revenue surged 81%, while Merck announced Q1 worldwide sales of $15.9bn, an increase of 50% year-on-year.

Elsewhere, Stanley Black & Decker cut full-year earnings guidance to $9.50 per share despite posting a 20% jump in Q1 revenues, while Caterpillar was in the green after earnings topped estimates, and fast-food giant McDonald's beat Wall Street expectations with Q1 revenues of $5.67bn and adjusted earnings per share of $2.28 each.

Comcast's Q1 figures beat across the board, boosted by both media and theme park revenues, Mastercard's earnings came in ahead of expectations thanks to a heightened level of travel spending, and Twitter, in perhaps its last full quarter as a public company, reported declining revenues despite a jump in users.

Still to come, Amazon, Apple, Intel, and Western Digital will all update the market on their most recent quarterly performance after the close.

On the data front, US gross domestic product declined at a 1.4% clip in the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department, missing estimates for a 1% increase. The negative growth marked an abrupt reversal for the US economy that was coming off its best showing in 38 years.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was trading slightly higher at 2.852% following the GDP reading.

In other macro news, the US personal consumption expenditure price index increased 6.4% year-on-year in February, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, accelerating from a downwardly revised 6.0% increase in the previous month for the steepest rise since February 1982. Gains were seen in prices of goods, up 9.6%, while services rose at the same 4.6% pace as in January.

Finally, US initial jobless claims dropped 180,000 in the week ended 23 April, according to the Labor Department, bang in line with analysts' expectations and down from an upwardly revised print of 185,000 a week earlier.

Dow Jones - Risers

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $87.83 4.05%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $180.80 3.50%
Visa Inc. (V) $220.57 3.02%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $124.86 2.99%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $159.67 1.98%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $252.03 1.98%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $306.42 1.60%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $161.70 1.47%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $45.83 1.35%
3M Co. (MMM) $145.94 1.20%