4:10pm: Losses continue
Stocks remained in negative territory at Thursday’s closing bell, with the Dow Jones shedding 330 points at 38,111 points.
The Nasdaq was down 1.1% at 16,737 points and the S&P 500 slipped 0.6% at 5,235 points.
Software firm Salesforce closed almost 20% lower at about $218 after it projected the weakest quarterly sales growth in its history for the second quarter.
11:55am: In the red
The three major stock indexes traded lower shortly before noon as disappointing earnings and rate cut concerns weighed on investor sentiment ahead of Friday’s key inflation print.
The Dow Jones was down 0.9% at 38,093 points, the Nasdaq shed 0.6% at 16,824 points and the S&P 500 was down 0.4% at 5,247 points.
''As the rally in yields halts, the US dollar gives back some of Thursday's gains ahead of Friday's PCE inflation print," IG senior market analyst Axel Rudolph commented.
“Friday's US PCE inflation print should help the Fed in its monetary policy decision making, especially after Thursday's Q1 GDP growth downward revision as corporate profits unexpectedly fall in Q1 while initial jobless claims rise slightly more than expected."
Meanwhile, oil is on track for its second day of falling prices, attributed by Rudolph to the softer US growth data ahead of Sunday's OPEC+ meeting.
“The price of gold managed to bounce off its three-week low while the silver price slips, undoing some of silver's recent outperformance versus gold,” he said.
10am: Wall Streets opens lower
The Dow Jones has fallen 345 points or 0.9% in initial trades to just under 38,100.
Salesforce is the biggest drag, down 18% after reporting earnigs after the closing bell overnight, with weak guidance concerning investors and analysts.
Microsoft, Amazon and IBM are the other major fallers, down 1.6%, 1.1%, 0.8% respectively. Among the morning's retail reporters, Foot Locker is up 26%, while Kohls is down 26%.
Best Buy is up 8.8% and Dollar General up 2%.
The broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.27% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.19%.
9.29am: Analyst thoughts
On the GDP data, Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte said the data was "a double-edged sword".
On the one hand, the slowing GDP to 1.3% from 1.6% and slowing personal consumption "are a sign that the economic expansion is cooling, which could be a concern for companies and stock market investors".
But on the other hand, Zaccarelli said slowing consumption and economic growth "could be just the news we need to see in order for the rate of inflation to keep coming down and allow the Fed to reduce interest rates after all".
Analysts at Monex said dollar is retracing a bit of ground this morning after running higher against most major currencies yesterday.
"Agitated investors are starting the summer considering too-hot inflation around the world, and government bond yields globally have been taking the hit as a result.
"US yields are no exception, as treasuries slipped through the session, but have clawed back a small amount of ground this morning. Yesterday’s trading session was the best for the Buck in the month of May."
The Monex team said this morning’s data "was a bit of a negative bag," both the GDP and PCE price indices revised down slightly.
"Both readings, though, are still showing prices rose at a rate of three percent or greater. Since this is the second reading of all these releases, however, the dollar reaction is rather muted and USD is only losing a touch of ground."
The big PCE inflation release is due out tomorrow morning, as the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.
"March’s reading for this index, while lower than what we saw in January and February, was still too hot for the Fed’s liking and they will be looking for a lower figure for April to close the lid on speculation of any further interest rate hikes," the Monex analysts said.
9.05am: Macroeconomic data dump
The dollar has softened after torrent of US economic data and earnings, down 0.17% against the dollar to $1.2720.
US GDP in the first quarter was up 1.3% quarter-on-quarter on an annualised basis, according to the second estimate, down from 1.6% in the first estimate as expected and the 3.4% growth in the fourth quarter.
The estimate of the core PCE deflator came in at 3.6% quarter-on-quarter versus 3.7% expected.
US initial jobless claims for last week came in at 219k, just above the 217k estimate and the prior week's 215k. The May non-farm payrolls report is due next Friday.
Continuing jobless claims printed at 1,791k, below the 1,800k expected, just above the 1,787k previous.
The US dollar index fell from 105.15 to 104.77.
8am: US heading for lower open
Despite stocks markets rebounding in Europe, Wall Street equity futures indicated a lower start amid a swathe of retail sector earnings.
Dow Jones futures pointed to a decline of 0.9%, with S&P 500 futures down 0.4% and those for the Nasdaq 100 falling 0.3%.
On a busy day for retail industry earnings, Kohl's Corporation (NYSE:KSS) shares sank 21% premarket after the department store group reported disappointing revenues and much bigger losses than forecast.
Net sales of $3.18 billion were lower than the $3.34 billion consensus estimate, with an adjusted loss per share of 24 cents versus 6.7 cents predicted. The group guided to sales decreasing 2-4%.
Going the other way, Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE:FL) stock jumped 14% after earnings surpassed expectations as the sneaker retailer continued its turnaround plan.
Management reiterated guidance for full-year sales to be somewhere between a 1% rise and a 1% fall, while Wall Street has predicted a 0.6% decline.
Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) shares are up 1.5% as earnings best forecasts but revenue was slightly short. Underlying EPS guidance was unchanged.
Dollar General Corp (NYSE:DG) is up 0.5% premarket as earnings per share and revenue beat the Street. Management still see full-year comparative sales up 2-2.7%.