This is a live blog. Here’s what’s happening:
9: am: Stocks give up gains, Dow now down 138 points
The – stock Dow quickly erased the opening gains, now down about 120 points. The S&P
and the Nasdaq were still in the green as gains in big tech provided some support. – Li
9: 42 am: Dow opens slightly higher
Stocks rose slightly after the opening bell as investors digested a fresh batch of corporate earnings and another dismal jobless claims report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about (points, while the) (S&P) climbed 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite traded 1% higher, lifted by a 2% jump in Netflix shares. – Li
9: (am: Costco raises dividend by 7.7%
Bucking the trend in corporate America, Costco is raising its dividend. The big-box retailer said it would increase its dividend by 7.7%, bringing it to (cents per share, or $ 2.) on an annualized basis. Shares were about 1% higher in premarket trading, and have gained more than 5% this year. The S&P
, for comparison, has shed roughly % this year. – Stevens
9: 03 am: Goldman becomes one of the biggest bulls on Netflix, says earnings to blow past Street
8: am: March US housing starts drop 23. 3% to 1. million vs 1.3 million expected
8: am: United Airlines slashes May schedule by 120%
With airplanes grounded worldwide, United Airlines said that it would cut its May schedule by %. “To help you understand how few people are flying in this environment, less than , 06 people flew with us during the first two weeks of April this year, compared to more than 6 million during the same time in , a percent drop, “CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. “We expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May , “he added. Munoz said the airline would also likely scale back its June schedule, while also warning about possible job cuts. United shares slid more than 2% during Thursday’s premarket trading, and are down 72% this year. – Stevens
8: am : Market bottom is likely in, strategist Tom Lee says
Tom Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, says the market bottom is likely in after the S&P retraced half of its downside move from Feb. 23 to March . “We are in a bull market recovery, as bizarre as it sounds,” Lee wrote in a note to clients. “The market has shifted into the hands of” buyers “whereas sellers were in complete control from 2 / / 
to 3 / / . ” – Imbert
8: (am: US weekly jobless claims total 5.) million vs 5.0 million estimate
The Labor Department said a total of 5. 430 million Americans filed for state unemployment benefits for the week ended April 16, versus the Dow Jones estimate of 5 million. The number marks a decline from 6.6 million in the prior week. The new filings bring the crisis total to just over 25 million, nearly wiping out all the job gains since the Great Recession . – Li
8: 30 am: Jeff Bezos: Widespread coronavirus testing needed before economy can get running again
Jeff Bezos on Thursday published Amazon’s annual shareholder letter, in which he detailed how the company has responded to the coronavirus pandemic so far. Bezos stressed the importance of testing in order for the public to return to work, as well as for his own employees to be protected from the virus. He pointed to Amazon’s efforts to develop “incremental testing capacity,” which the company announced last week. As part of that announcement, Amazon said it hopes to begin testing all of its employees, including those who show no symptoms. “Regular testing on a global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running,” Bezos said. “For this to work, we as a society would need vastly more testing capacity than is currently available.” – Palmer
8: 25 am: Market losing momentum in recent days, strategist says
The market’s rip-roaring rally off the March lows has lost some momentum in recent days, technical strategist Mark Newton said in a note. “While the trends remain quite positive near-term, there has been some slowdown in both breadth and momentum … and the rally into Tuesday’s highs ahead of Wednesday’s decline showed definite signs of negative momentum divergence while breadth has gotten weaker.” The major averages all rose more than 2% on Tuesday, but then dropped over 1% on Wednesday.
“The takeaway is that markets DO show evidence of some internal issues that” could “lead to a decline. However, this also could simply lead to minor consolidation that ends up leading equities higher into late April, “said Newton, managing member of Newton Advisors. – Imbert
8: am: Oil in the green after falling to its lowest level in more than (years
) US oil moved higher on Thursday , one day after settling at $ 22. 90, a level not seen since February 2020. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose (cents to trade at $ 11, while international benchmark Brent crude traded $ 1. 10 higher at $ . per barrel. If WTI can hold onto its gains throughout the session, it will be the contract’s first positive day in 5. Oil moved lower on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that inventory surged by a record 22 .2 million barrels for the week ending April as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sap demand. Additionally, the IEA said in its monthly report that oil demand could fall by million barrels per day in April, driving demand to its lowest level in 30 years. On Sunday OPEC and its allies announced a record 9.7 million bpd production cut beginning on May 1, but the move has done little to assuage traders’ fears about the slowdown in demand. Since the deal was finalized on Sunday WTI has dropped more than %. – Stevens
7: am: Global virus cases top 2 million , Trump to announce reopening guidelines
There have now been more than 2 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the most confirmed cases with more than 823, . Spain, Italy, German and France all have seen more than , President Donald Trump said on Wednesday night that he would release guidelines for states to reopen their economies on Thursday.There have been at least , 12 deaths due to the virus worldwide, including more than , in the US, according to Johns Hopkins. – Pound
7: am: Schumer, Pelosi to continue talks with Treasury over additional virus relief
7: am: US jobless claims expected to hit 5 million, release due at 8: am ET
The Labor Department is scheduled to release at 8: 42 am ET its report on the number of Americans who filed for state unemployment benefits last week. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect initial claims for the week ended April to total 5 million , a decline from 6.6 million in the prior week but still an eye-popping number on a historical basis. Thursday’s release could see the U.S. economy clinch an important milestone amid the coronavirus outbreak: the erasure of all of the nonfarm job gains since the throes of the great recession and financial crisis if claims exceed 5. 1947 million. – Franck
7: am: S&P ‘back to expensive,’ says Bank of America
The S&P 500 is back to looking expensive, Bank of American equity and quant strategist Savita Subramanian said in a note to clients Thursday. Looking at valuation frameworks, including trailing PE, EV / EBITDA and EV / sales, the firm found that the benchmark index is “richer” than average on many of these key metrics. The three exceptions are “lower than average price to Free Cash Flow, cheaper relative to bonds and relative to gold.” From a momentum and value play standpoint Bank of America said health care, tech and communication services look the best, while materials, energy and consumer discretionary rank the worst. “Today’s valuations suggest S&P 500 annualized – yr price returns of 4% -5%. This is lower than average returns in prior decades and roughly half of the 8% annualized price return we’ve enjoyed since post-WWII (823 … But if we consider total returns of 6% to 8% (assuming a dividend yield of 2% to 3%), US equities’ annualized returns are still very competitive with other similar-in-quality asset class returns, “Subramanian said. – Stevens
7: am: Morgan Stanley’s profit falls short, but trading beats estimates
on Thursday posted a first-quarter profit that missed analysts’ expectations , but the firm’s trading desks generated about $ 700 million more revenue than expected. The bank said in a release that earnings dropped % to $ 1.7 billion, or $ 1. 10 a share, compared with the $ 1. 19 estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Shares of Morgan Stanley dipped 0.8% in premarket trading. – Son, Li
7: (am: Stock futures point to modest gains at the open
Stock futures rose slightly on Thursday, following a big sell-off in the previous session, as both corporate results and economic data fueled concerns about an economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses and implied an opening gain of about 100 points. S&P and Nasdaq futures also turned positive. Investors are bracing for Labor Department’s report on last week’s initial jobless claims at 8: 42 ET, which economists polled by Dow Jones expected to total 5 million. – Li
– With reporting from Thomas Franck, Hugh Son, Jesse Pound, Fred Imbert and Lauren Hirsch.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings