Benzinga - by Piero Cingari, Benzinga Staff Writer.
U.S. major stock indices climbed higher on Thursday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average achieving a historic milestone by surpassing 40,000 points.
Blue-chip stocks are experiencing their thirteenth positive session out of the last fifteen, extending the bull market that commenced in October to a 24% rally.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 both inched up by 0.1%, further updating their record highs, driven by soft economic data.
For the week ending May 11, unemployment benefit claims fell by 10,000 to 222,000, although this remains the third-highest level for the year.
Industrial production was flat in April, missing expectations of a 0.1% increase, while manufacturing production dropped by 0.3% from the previous month, also falling short of market forecasts of a 0.1% growth.
Treasury yields hold broadly steady, while the U.S. dollar index (DXY) witnessed minor gains, up 0.1%.
Chinese stocks continued their positive momentum, with the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE:KWEB), tracking the nation’s tech stocks, up 1.8% and reaching its highest levels since mid-February 2023.
Notably, renowned ‘big short’ investor Michael Burry added Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) to his hedge fund’s holdings and increased his stakes in JD.com Inc. (NYSE:JD) and Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:BABA), according to the latest 13F filing.
The bloodbath on meme stocks continued, while gold and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) both fell :
- GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) down 21%, after a 19% drop on Wednesday.
- AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE:AMC) fell 10%, after a 20% drop a day earlier
- Gold paused for a breather, down 0.3%, while copper fell 0.7% on track to snap a 5-day winning streak.
- Bitcoin fell 1.7%, after rising as much as 7.6% on Wednesday.
Thursday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs
| Major Indices | Price | 1-day %chg |
| Dow Jones | 39,975.05 | 0.2% |
| S&P 500 | 5,311.27 | 0.1% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 18,607.05 | 0.1 % |
| Russell 2000 | 208.58 | -0.4% |
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was flat at $529.80, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.2% to $399.92 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) was flat at $453.15, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Sector-wise, the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) outperformed, up by 1.7%. The Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) was the laggard, down 0.6%.
Thursday’s Stock Movers
- Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) rallied 6.5% on track for its strongest day in 6 months, after the company topped Street’s estimates on both revenue and earnings last quarter.
- Other stocks reacting to earnings were Deere & Co. (NYSE:DE) down 4%, Advance Drainage Systems Inc. (NYSE:WMS) down 3.4%, Dillards Inc. (NYSE:DDS) down 1.4% and Under Armour Inc. (NYSE:UA) down 0.6%.
- Chubb Limited (NYSE:CB) rose over 4%, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased 25.92 million shares of the stock.
- Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) fell over 8%, as the cryptocurrency market saw broad-based drops.
- Large-cap companies reporting their earnings after the market close are Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), Copart Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO).
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