4:10 pm: Stocks close higher
US stocks closed in positive territory as technology stocks powered higher after encouraging earnings from the likes of Tesla and Netflix earlier in the week.
The Dow closed Thursday up 162 points or 0.5%, at 32,036, the Nasdaq Composite added 162 points, or 1.36%, at 12,059 and the S&P 500 rose 39 points, or 0.99%, at 3,998.
Tesla shares closed at $812 after gaining more than 9% during the day, after the electric vehicle producer posted better than expected earning results.
12:24pm: Tesla shares rev up on earnings beat
Shortly after noon, the Dow was down 11 points, less than 0.1%, to 31,863, the Nasdaq Composite added 96 points, 0.8%, to 11,994 and the S&P 500 improved 19 points, 0.5%, to 3,979.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares surged more than 8% to $806.54 after the electric vehicle producer posted better than expected earnings, helping the Nasdaq Composite find positive territory.
Meanwhile, gold futures are on the upswing. The Commodity Exchange was up 0.7% to $1,711.80.
"It's been another volatile session and one in which gold appears to have come back into favour," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, wrote Thursday. "It wasn't looking so hot earlier but as Wall Street neared the open, the yellow metal started to rally. Weaker US data and a hawkish ECB may be behind the move but the gold rally much exceeds the drop-off in the dollar. We seem to be seeing an inverse of the price action late last week and early this, with yields erasing earlier gains seemingly responsible. Is the gold recovery trade underway?"
11.20am: Proactive North America headlines:
Tesla says no problems with supply but scepticism remains over production targets
Caledonia Mining’s Bilboes acquisition a boost for investor confidence - broker says
VR Resources intersects the broadest and highest-grade critical metal mineralization to date at Hecla Kilmer property in Ontario
Shanta Gold lifts quarterly gold production by 54%
Electric Royalties says lithium assets making good progress in portfolio update
Victory Square Technologies reports net asset value of $89.7M in corporate update
Benchmark Metals finalising drill targets at Kodah and Round Mountain occurences at flagship Lawyers project
Sidus Space completes fabrication of hardware supporting NASA’s Artemis Program and Space Launch System Manned Vehicle
Melkior Resources receives TSX Venture Exchange approval for Genex gold-copper project option deal
Great Panther sees 2Q metal production of 20,187 gold equivalent ounces, including 16,889 gold ounces and 159,529 silver ounces
Vicinity Motor announces eligibility in new Transport Canada incentive program for affordable buying or leasing zero-emission vehicles
Empress Royalty says first gold poured at Mozambique Manica mine in which it owns royalty
Burcon NutraScience partner Merit Functional Foods launches Peazazz C pea protein for foods and beverages
Los Andes Copper says drilling can resume at Vizcachitas Copper Project after Chilean court decision
HealthLynked (OTCQB:HLYK) strengthens advisory board with addition of insurance executive Paul Norman
Standard Uranium says it is 'closer to a major discovery' at its Davidson River uranium project with completion of its spring/summer drill program
Mirasol Resources says latest drill results from Virginia silver project in Argentina confirm asset's potential
SoLVBL Solutions enters into admin software development agreement with Bit Complete
Zynerba Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZYNE) enters into equity purchase agreement for up to $20M with Lincoln Park Capital
Argentina Lithium & Energy wins tender to purchase 100% interest in Rinconcita II mining concession
Tocvan Ventures says initial testing at Pilar returned over 85% gold recovery
Skye Bioscience selects NextPharma as phase 2 contract drug manufacturer
Caledonia’s acquisition of the Bilboes gold project from a consortium including Baker Steel looks like a win-win deal
Cabral Gold posts more encouraging drill results from PDM target at Cuiú Cuiú project in Brazil
PowerTap Hydrogen updates on municipal approvals and corporate development
Marvel Discovery Corp begins 2022 exploration program at wholly-owned Gander North Property
9.35am: US jobless claims reach eight-month high
US stocks opened lower as investor focus remained on the slew of corporate earnings being released this week, with reports from AT&T Inc, American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) Inc, and Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) due today.
Just after the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 174 points at 31,701, while the S&P 500 was down 14 points at 3,946 points and the Nasdaq Composite had slipped 28 points at 11,870 points.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up about 4% after posting a 2Q earnings beat while revenue failed to meet analyst expectations after the bell yesterday.
United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL), on the other hand, had plunged about 9% after the company reported lower-than-expected Q2 results due to rising fuel prices and increased operating expenses.
Meanwhile, US jobless claims rose for the third straight week to reach the highest level in eight months, indicating some softening in the labor market.
Initial jobless claims for the week ended July 16 rose to 251,000 from 244,000 – above the consensus analyst expectation of 240,000.
Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson said he doubted the increase in unemployment claims was significant, with the numbers still being distorted by the annual automaker retooling shutdowns.
“The underlying trend will re-emerge when the distortions fade, in early August,” he said. “We expect to see only a small increase from the 230,000 trend before the auto shutdowns, with the level of claims remaining very low by historical standards.”
6.30am: Enthusiasm wanes slightly
US stocks were expected to open slightly lower on Thursday, retreating after recent gains as investors mull over another pile of corporate earnings.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading 0.2% lower pre-market, while those for the broader S&P 500 index were down 0.1%, and futures for the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 were flat.
Equities have enjoyed a decent run through the week so far with investors responding positively to results already from Netflix and Tesla. Concerns over the state of the economy, however, are not far from the surface and are still likely to erode the gains seen so far this week.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote noted that the S&P 500 posted its first back-to-back gains in almost two weeks and Nasdaq gained 1.58%.
On the earnings front on Thursday, American Airlines, Blackstone, and AT&T are due to release results as the Q2 season continues to unfold.
Earlier this week, Netflix shares were shored up by quarterly results which were less disappointing than expected, while after-hours yesterday Tesla announced better than expected earnings.
“As with Netflix, the Tesla results were worse than the previous quarter. The company announced the first sequential decline in profit since the end of 2020, but revealed that it nailed the highest vehicle production in its history despite the shutdown of the Shanghai mega factory due to the COVID restrictions and maintained its annual production growth target unchanged at 50%.,” Ozkardeskaya noted.
Elsewhere, news that Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi has resigned weighed on European stocks. The European Central Bank, meanwhile, is expected to raise interest rates today, with the decision expected to be poised between a 25 basis point or 50 basis point hike.
In energy markets, WTI crude oil futures were 4.6% lower at $95.53 a barrel, while Brent crude futures were down 4.2 % at $102.42.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com