The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 34,060.36 on Thursday with a gain of 239.98 points or 0.71%. The S&P 500 closed at 4,211.47 for a gain of 28.29 points or 0.68%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 14,082.55 for a gain of 31.52 points or 0.22%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher at 17.61 for a gain of 0.33 points or 1.91%.
Thursday's Market Movers
The major U.S. indexes closed with gains Thursday. U.S. gross domestic product was in-line with estimates for the first quarter. Quarter over quarter, gross domestic product increased 6.4% on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, slightly ahead of the estimate of 6.3%.
Investors also digested Wednesday night's Congressional address by President Joe Biden. Biden discussed key initiatives in a new $1.8 trillion package that includes tax increases for the obscenely wealthy and education support for kids and college students, among many other things.
In another busy day for earnings, the following companies reported results:
- Apple (AAPL, Financial): Revenue of $89.6 billion increased 53.7% year over year and beat estimates by $12.31 billion. FQ2 GAAP EPS of $1.40 beat estimates by $0.42.
- Lending Club (LC, Financial): Revenue of $105.8 million decreased -19.4% year over year and beat estimates by $17.03 million. Q1 GAAP EPS of -$0.49 beat estimates by $0.40.
- Amazon (AMZN, Financial): Revenue of $108.52 billion increased 43.7% year over year and beat estimates by $3.89 billion. Q1 GAAP EPS of $15.79 beat estimates by $6.18. Record profit levels.
- Caterpillar (CAT, Financial): Revenue of $11.9 billion increased 11.8% year over year and beat estimates by $810 million. Q1 GAAP EPS of $2.77 beat estimates by $0.92 and non-GAAP EPS of $2.87 beat estimates by $0.93. Commented on chip shortage challenges.
- McDonald's (MCD, Financial): Revenue of $5.12 billion increased 8.7% year over year and beat estimates by $80 million. Q1 GAAP EPS of $2.05 beat estimates by $0.24 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.92 beat estimates by $0.10.
In other news:
- 553,000 Americans filed for jobless claims, down from 566,000. Continuing jobless claims were 3.660 million, up from 3.651 million.
- Pending home sales increased 1.9% in March following a decrease of -11.5%. Year over year, pending home sales increased 23.3%.
- The Treasury held auctions for 4-week bills at a rate of 0.000% and 8-week bills at a rate of 0.010%.
- Freddie Mac released its weekly mortgage market survey. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.98%, up from 2.97%. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.31%, up from 2.29%.
Across the board:
- Financials and energy led sector gains.
- Boeing (BA, Financial) was up 0.20% with Federal Aviation Administration issues regarding the 737 MAX.
- Facebook (FB, Financial) +7.30%
- Qualcomm (QCOM, Financial) +4.47%
- Comcast (CMCSA, Financial) +4.25%
Small-Cap Stocks
In small-caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 2,295.46 for a loss of 8.70 points or -0.38%. The S&P 600 closed at 1,363.56 for a gain of 0.51 points or 0.037%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 15,249.10 for a loss of 101.05 points or -0.66%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 11,363.37 for a gain of 34.79 points or 0.31%.
Other Notable Indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 2,762.32 for a gain of 0.71 points or 0.026%; the S&P 100 at 1,912.85 for a gain of 13.63 points or 0.72%; the Nasdaq 100 at 13,970.20 for a gain of 68.59 points or 0.49%; the Russell 3000 at 2,523.30 for a gain of 11.98 points or 0.48%; the Russell 1000 at 2,374.42 for a gain of 12.74 points or 0.54%; the Wilshire 5000 at 44,113.22 for a gain of 217.32 points or 0.50%; and the Dow Jones US Select Dividend Index at 851.70 for a gain of 8.81 points or 1.05%.
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