Wall Street opens lower as jobless claims hit mood; Dow Down 350 by Investing.com

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com: US Stock Markets USA They opened lower on Thursday, reverting to some of Wednesday’s gains after another large increase in initial jobless claims that dampened optimism about a rapid recovery in the economy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said another 3.84 million filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, above expectations of 3.5 million but still a fourth consecutive weekly drop. Continued claims of $ 17.99 million were below expectations, but are still a record for recent history.

At 10:15 AM ET (1415 GMT), the price was down 220 points or 0.9% to 24,414 points, while the S&P 500 was down 0.7%. Performance outperformed, losing just 0.1%, isolated by stronger-than-expected quarterly updates on Wednesday night from big caps by Microsoft (NASDAQ :), Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 and Tesla (NASDAQ :).

The gains were concentrated in the megacaps, and most of the rest of the market was left without strength after a relief recovery that, according to many, has generated an overly optimistic recovery scenario.

Facebook shares rose 6.6% after the social media giant reported that advertising revenue stabilized in April, supported by e-commerce and gaming companies aiming to capitalize on the inability of the public. to leave the house for recreation or shopping.

Microsoft shares rose 1.0% after the software giant reported a general increase in revenue and an increase in profits. The demand for its Azure cloud hosting business was a particular beneficiary of companies’ need to do more of their things online. Tesla, which reported a surprise profit for the quarter late on Wednesday, was also up 6.1%, despite failing to name a date for the reopening of its Fremont factory (to the chagrin of its CEO, Elon Musk). .

On the busiest day of the earnings season, however, there were so many lows. Shares of McDonald’s (NYSE 🙂 fell 2.3% after reporting a 6% drop in quarterly sales, while Macy’s (NYSE 🙂 was unable to get a break even after announcing it aims to reopen 68 of its stores starting on Monday, and the rest of its chains within six weeks. Macy’s shares fell 3.0%.

Zoom Video (NASDAQ 🙂 fell 7.2% as signs of an economic reopening removed what the blockades had yielded, while the biggest decline was in Royal Dutch Shell (LON 🙂 ADR, which fell more than 11% as the company cut its dividend for the first time since World War II. The stock was not supported by another sharp rise in prices as traders moved to the price to ease the supply / demand imbalance.

European banks’ ADRs also fell sharply after the European Central Bank chose not to expand its bond purchase program, relying instead on an indirect cut in financing costs that will have little immediate impact on its profitability. Deutsche Bank (NYSE 🙂 ADRs fell 3.6%, while Banco Santander (NYSE 🙂 ADRs fell 5.6%.