The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its highest level since January 2022 as investors crossed the finish line of a banner month for stocks and viewed cooling inflation data as a harbinger of easing Federal Reserve monetary policy.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 520.47 points, or 1.47%, to 35,950.89, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 17.22 points, or 0.38%, at 4,567.8 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 32.27 points, or 0.23%, to 14,226.22.
Market Movers
Salesforce, the provider of cloud-based customer relationship management software, reported fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.11 a share on revenue of $8.72 billion. Earnings beat analysts’ estimates while revenue was slightly higher. Salesforce said it expects fourth-quarter adjusted profit of between $2.25 and $2.26 a share on revenue of between $9.18 billion and $9.23 billion. Analysts had been forecasting non-GAAP profit of $2.18 a share on revenue of $9.2 billion. The stock rose 9.4%.
Third-quarter adjusted earnings at Snowflake came in better than expected and the software company’s guidance for fiscal fourth-quarter product revenue of $716 million to $721 million topped estimates of $696 million. Shares of the cloud data warehouse software company rose 7.1%.
Pure Storage was down 12% after the provider of flash-memory based enterprise storage products issued disappointing revenue guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year. The company blamed the miss on a combination of a business model transition and the delayed fulfillment of a large customer order.
Ford Motor fell 3.1% after the auto maker said it expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes in 2023 of $10 billion to $10.5 billion, compared with guidance provided in July of between $11 billion and $12 billion. Ford had withdrawn guidance in October because of the strike by the United Auto Workers union. The guidance issued Thursday includes $1.7 billion in strike-related costs.
Immunogen surged 83% to $29.35 after AbbVie agreed to buy the cancer treatment developer for $10.1 billion, or $31.26 a share, a 95% premium to the stock’s closing price of $16.07 on Wednesday. AbbVie was up 2.8%.
Discover Financial Services rose 4.6% after saying it would stop accepting new applications for student loans by Feb. 1, 2024, as it seeks strategic alternatives, including a sale of the Discover Student Loans portfolio.
Snap gained 6.6% after shares of the Snapchat parent were upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies. Pinterest also was upgraded to Buy at Jefferies and the stock gained 2.4%.
Synopsys beat fiscal fourth-quarter analyst estimates for adjusted profit and sales and the chip design software maker’s guidance for its first quarter topped expectations. In an interview with Barron’s, new CEO Sassine Ghazi said Synopsys sees multiple ways to leverage artificial intelligence in its business. Synopsys was down 1.6%.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 2.4% after announcing an expanded collaboration in artificial intelligence with Nvidia. In addition, the stock was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley and the price target was left unchanged at $16.
Kroger said it expects full-year same-store sales excluding fuel to rise 0.6% to 1%. In September, it called for an increase of 1% to 2%. Shares of the grocer, which blamed a slowdown on food inflation and broader economic pressure, rose 1.4%.
Tesla began its Cybertruck delivery event Thursday afternoon in Austin, Texas. It was livestreamed on Tesla ‘s website. Tesla planned to hand over the initial batch of Cybertrucks to buyers. The event will start answering two key questions for investors: Will the Cybertruck be a big seller and will the truck help boost sales of other Tesla models? Tesla shares were down 2% in after-hours trading.
Altimmune rose 36% in after-hours trading after announcing positive topline results from its 48-week MOMENTUM Phase 2 obesity trial of pemvidutide.
Elastic N.V. rose 15% in after-hours trading after beating for its second quarter and issued better than expected guidance for its third quarter and full year.
UiPath rose 11% in after-hours trading after posting better-than-expected bottom and top-line results in its third quarter.
Ulta Beauty rose 12% in after-hours trading after posting a beat-and-raise third quarter as lower prices helped boost sales.
Market News
OPEC+ agrees to deepen voluntary oil output cuts
OPEC+ oil producers on Thursday agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for early next year led by Saudi Arabia rolling over its current voluntary cut.
Benchmark global oil prices settled down around 2% , in part because the reductions were voluntary and because of investor expectation ahead of the meeting that additional supply cuts might be deeper.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+, who pump more than 40% of the world's oil, met online on Thursday to discuss supply policy.
US consumer spending cools; labor market gradually slowing
U.S. consumer spending rose moderately in October, while the annual increase in inflation was the smallest in more than 2-1/2 years, signs of cooling demand that bolstered expectations the Federal Reserve's interest rate hiking campaign was over.
Those hopes were reinforced by other data on Thursday showing the labor market gradually easing. More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week and the number on jobless rolls surged to a two-year high in mid-November.
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