U.S. stocks closed near the unchanged mark on Thursday, as investors sifted through the latest corporate earnings, while economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials suggested the central bank was unlikely to cut interest rates in the near future.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 lost 11.09 points, or 0.22%, to end at 5,011.12 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 81.87 points, or 0.52%, to 15,601.5. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.07 points, or 0.06%, to 37,775.38.
Market Movers
Netflix shares were down 4.6% at $582.3 in after-hours trading. Netflix blew past Wall Street expectations on new customers for the second straight quarter on Thursday but signaled the positive surprises could be over, forecasting revenue growth slightly below analyst targets.
Trump Media & Technology Group rose 26%. The parent of the Truth Social platform has advised stockholders on how to avoid their shares being loaned to short sellers as it looks to curb bets against its stock. On Wednesday, the stock rose 16%—its best one-day performance since March 26—after falling nearly 30% over the previous two sessions.
Tesla shares fell to their lowest in more than a year on Thursday after Deutsche Bank raised concerns over the electric automaker's increasing focus on its autonomous vehicle products when profit is under pressure. The Elon Musk-led company's shares fell 3.6% to $149.93 after the brokerage downgraded the stock to "Hold" and cut its price target to $123 from $189.
Meta Platforms rose 1.5% after the parent of Facebook and Instagram launched a web site, Meta.ai, a new free-to-use stand-alone version of the company’s Meta Ai chatbot that will compete head on with Gemini from Alphabe t’s Google, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and others.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, a major supplier to Nvidia and Apple, reported first-quarter earnings rose 8.9% from a year earlier and topped analysts’ expectations. Quarterly revenue in U.S. dollars rose 13% to $18.87 billion. For the second quarter, TSMC projected revenue of between $19.6 billion and $20.4 billion. U.S.-listed shares of the world’s largest third-party semiconductor chip manufacturer fell 4.8% after lowering expectations for the overall semiconductor market.
Las Vegas Sands posted a first-quarter profit of 66 cents a share, up from 19 cents a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, earnings were 75 cents a share, beating Wall Street estimates of 62 cents. The casino company said revenue rose almost 40% to $2.96 billion. Las Vegas Sands said it experienced strong growth in Macao and Singapore. Shares of Las Vegas Sands declined 8.5%, however, as revenue in Macao missed analysts’ expectations.
Equifax forecast second-quarter revenue of $1.41 billion to $1.43 billion, missing expectations. The company said it was maintaining its 2024 guidance, which reflects expectations of a decline of 11% in U.S. mortgage credit inquiries. Shares of the consumer credit reporting agency were down 8.5%.
Genuine Parts rose 11%. The distributor of automotive and industrial replacement parts raised its outlook for adjusted per-share earnings this year.
D.R. Horton posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of $3.52 a share, beating Wall Street expectations of $3.07. The nation’s largest home builder reported revenue in the period of $9.1 billion, which also was higher than estimates. The company said it expects fiscal-year revenue in the range of $36.7 billion to $37.7 billion, up from previous guidance of $36 billion to $37.3 billion. Shares were flat.
Alaska Air reported a first-quarter adjusted loss of 92 cents a share, narrower than estimates that called for a loss of $1.05. The stock was up 4%. Revenue of $2.23 billion topped estimates of $2.17 billion.
India’s Infosys fell 2.6% in U.S. trading after the IT services provider’s fourth-quarter revenue missed analysts’ estimates.
Duolingo rose 5.3% after it was announced the stock would be added to the S&P MidCap 400 on April 22. The provider of language-learning services will replace Cable One, which is moving to the S&P SmallCap 600.
EBay rose 1% to $49.95 after analysts at Morgan Stanley raised their rating to Overweight from Underweight and increased their target price to $62 from $35. Etsy, meanwhile, was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley and the price target was reduced to $55 from $64. Etsy shares fell 0.2% to $67.34
Market News
Microsoft's OpenAI partnership could face EU antitrust probe, sources say
Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI could face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators are building the case for such a move, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Microsoft's OpenAI partnership, together with those between Alphabet, Amazon and Anthropic, have triggered scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic as antitrust enforcers seek to understand how these deals affect competition.
Fed's Bostic: open to a rate hike if inflation progress stalls
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic on Thursday said that if inflation does not continue to move toward the U.S. central bank's 2% goal, as he expects it will, central bankers would need to consider an interest-rate hike. "If inflation stalls out or even starts moving in the opposite direction, away from our target, I don't think we'll have any other option but to respond to that," Bostic said at the University of Miami.
"If it seems that the level of restrictiveness that we're at today is not enough to do the job or get the job done, I'd have to be open to increasing rates."
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