US open: Stocks open higher amid jobless claims, earnings

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 were in the green early on Thursday as market participants thumbed over earnings from Tesla and this week's jobless claims data.

As of 1535 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.67% at 35,396.34, while the S&P 500 was 0.76% firmer at 4,493.31 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.89% stronger at 13,572.82.

The Dow opened 235.55 points higher on Thursday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

In the corporate space, electric car maker Tesla was in focus at the open on Thursday after it posted a jump in first-quarter profits and revenues overnight, surpassing analysts' expectations thanks to higher prices and solid demand. Profits surged to $3.3bn from $438.0m in the first quarter of last year, on revenues of $18.8bn, up from $10.4bn. Revenues came in nearly $1.0bn above expectations. Meanwhile, total deliveries rose 68% year-on-year to a record 310,048.

Elsewhere, AT&T posted a 2.5% jump in core revenues to $29.7bn, while Xerox reported a $0.38 loss per share, a marked turnaround when compared to earnings per share of $0.18 posted at the same time a year earlier.

Philip Morris lowered full-year earnings forecasts on Thursday as the tobacco giant said it had been impacted by the pullback of its Russian operations, higher costs and a slower-than-expected recovery in its Asian duty-free business, while American Airlines forecast a second-quarter pre-tax profit as strong bookings helped it cover soaring fuel costs and added that March was the first month since the onset of the Covid-10 pandemic that revenue had surpassed 2019 levels.

Still to come, social media outfit Snap will report after the close.

On the macro front, first-time jobless claims in the US held near their cycle lows during the past week, according to the Department of Labor, with filings for initial unemployment claims drifting lower by 2,000 to 184,000 over the week ended 16 April. The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the figures from one week to another, rose by 4,500 to 177,250, while secondary unemployment claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 9 April, dropped by 58,000 to approximately 1.42m - a near half-century low.

In other data news, the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index fell to 17.6 in April, down from 27.4 in March and below expectations for a print of 21, while the Conference Board's leading economic index increased 0.3% in March to 119.8.

Also in focus, Joe Biden announced that the US will provide another $800.0m in military assistance to Ukraine in order to "further augment Ukraine's ability to fight in the east, in the Donbas region".

"We're in a critical window of time now where (Russian forces are) going to set the stage for the next phase of this war," Biden said. "The United States and our partners and allies are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs, its forces need, to defend its nation."

Dow Jones - Risers

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $71.34 5.63%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $55.47 1.96%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $170.21 1.78%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $140.63 1.67%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $290.39 1.41%
Boeing Co. (BA) $186.00 1.33%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $66.81 1.29%
Visa Inc. (V) $220.59 1.29%
3M Co. (MMM) $152.40 1.20%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $53.64 1.17%