US stocks fluctuate as investors weigh earnings reports
News Corporation advanced by 5.4 per cent after saying net income tripled and topped analysts’ estimates. Precision Castparts Corporation jumped by 8.4 per cent for the biggest S&P 500 gain after posting earnings that topped projections.
Bloomberg News reports that Monster Beverage dropped by 6.9 per cent after the chief executive officer said sales growth in April slowed.
The S&P 500 rose by less than 0.1 per cent to 1,632.91 at 2:16 p.m. in New York after declining as much as 0.4 per cent earlier in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 18.59 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 15,123.71. Trading of S&P 500 stocks was 7.4 per cent below the 30-day average at this time of day.
“Aside from a few pullbacks where people take profits, there is still plenty of upside,” Randy Frederick, the Austin-based managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp., said by telephone. His firm oversees about $2tn.
“Despite the fact that we’re hitting records every day, there’s no reason to believe this won’t continue for a while. The only thing that can derail this type of a move is some sort of really unexpected news event.”
US stocks rallied on Thursday for a fifth straight day of gains, as companies forecast earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
The S&P 500 has surged by 14 per cent so far this year amid optimism central banks will continue to use stimulus to support economic growth.
The equity benchmark has entered the fifth year of a bull market, fueled by three rounds of bond purchases from the Federal Reserve.
“It’s been the same, interesting pattern for the last two weeks: We see softness at the opening, but the market firms up by midday,” Arthur Hogan, a strategist at Lazard Capital Markets LLC, said in a telephone interview from Boston.
“There’s been a lack of negative news. The only economic data of substance we’ve gotten was today, and it was the jobless claims data that was positive.”
Applications for unemployment insurance payments unexpectedly dropped last week, and the average over the past month fell to the lowest level since before the last recession, Labor Department figures showed.
