The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 31,430.70 on Thursday with a loss of 7.10 points or -0.02%. The S&P 500 closed at 3,916.38 for a gain of 6.50 points or 0.17%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 14,025.77 for a gain of 53.24 points or 0.38%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 21.25 for a loss of 0.74 points or -3.37%.
Thursday's Market Movers
U.S. stocks closed mostly higher Thursday after two down days. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continued to show improvements in the U.S. President Biden reported a deal on Thursday for more vaccine doses. Some retail locations are making plans for beginning to administer Covid-19 vaccines. Morgan Stanley (MS) estimated that vaccine availability could cover approximately 75% of adults by mid-summer 2021.
On the earnings calendar:
- Affirm (AFRM, Financial): Revenue of $204.04 million increased 57.0% year over year and beat estimates by $14.82 million. FQ2 GAAP loss per share of $0.45 beat estimates by $0.53.
- Disney (DIS, Financial): Revenue of $16.25 billion decreased -22.1% year over year and beat estimates by $370 million. FQ1 GAAP EPS of $0.02 beat estimates by $0.73 and non-GAAP EPS of $0.32 beat estimates by $0.66. Disney+ reported 94.9 million new subscribers, beating the estimate of 90.7 million.
In other news:
- Mastercard (MA, Financial) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK, Financial) announced plans for cryptocurrency acceptance.
- Federal investigations have been announced for the recent market trading anomalies involving GameStop (GME), silver futures and more. Testimonies requested include Robinhood executives, social media executives and brokers.
- 793,000 Americans filed for jobless claims, down from 812,000. Continuing jobless claims were 4.545 million, down from 4.690 million.
- The Treasury held auctions for four-week bills at a rate of 0.030%, eight-week bills at a rate of 0.035% and 30-year bonds at a rate of 1.933%.
- Freddie Mac released its weekly mortgage market survey. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.73%, unchanged from the previous week. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.19%, down from 2.21%.
Across the board:
- GenMark Diagnostics (GNMK, Financial) +33.16%
- The iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXX, Financial) gained 3.46% on heightened demand transparency for chip supplies.
- Zillow Group Inc Class C (Z, Financial) +17.79%
- Zillow Group Inc Class A (ZG, Financial) +16.82%
Small-Cap Stocks
In small-caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 2,285.32 for a gain of 2.88 points or 0.13%. The S&P 600 closed at 1,295.81 for a gain of 4.88 points or 0.38%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 15,880.92 for a gain of 77.69 points or 0.49%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 10,116.51 for a loss of 2.15 points or -0.02%.
Other Notable Indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 2,535.25 for a gain of 16.01 points or 0.64%; the S&P 100 at 1,796.46 for a gain of 1.72 points or 0.096%; the Nasdaq 100 at 13,734.35 for a gain of 79.08 points or 0.58%; the Russell 3000 at 2,375.95 for a gain of 5.28 points or 0.22%; the Russell 1000 at 2,226.41 for a gain of 5.11 points or 0.23%; the Wilshire 5000 at 41,440.82 for a gain of 71.02 points or 0.17%; and the Dow Jones US Select Dividend Index at 732.68 for a loss of 4.22 points or -0.57%.
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