US equities advance amid tech shares rally before jobs data
Stocks advance after the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell to its lowest in a month, as Yahoo led a rebound in technology shares
New York: US stocks advanced, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell to its lowest in a month, as Yahoo! Inc. led a rebound in technology shares before Friday’s labour report.
Alibaba Group Holding Inc. jumped 7.4% after reporting a 45% increase in quarterly revenue. Yahoo, which owns a stake in Alibaba, added 5.3%. Microsoft Corp. rebounded from its steepest drop in six weeks. Whole Foods Market Inc. and Keurig Green Mountain Inc. lost at least 8.4% after their quarterly reports disappointed investors.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% to 2,088.56 at 11:32am in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 81.18 points, or 0.5%, to 17,923.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.5%.
“The market has been getting mixed-to-negative messages over the last few days," said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which oversees $2 billion. “The economic numbers have recently been more disappointing than not, so it makes tomorrow’s jobs number even more newsworthy than usual."
US stocks fell on Wednesday, dragged lower after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen warned of high equity market valuations and after a private report that showed hiring slowed.
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, dropping the average over the past month to the lowest in 15 years. Investors are looking to Friday’s government payroll numbers for clues on the American economy’s strength. Economists forecast a 230,000 rise in April, according to a Bloomberg survey, after a 126,000 gain in March.
CBS Corp. and 15 other S&P 500 members report results on Thursday. Analysts have tempered their predictions for a slump in first-quarter profits, while more than two-thirds of companies that have posted earnings so far have beat estimates. Bloomberg
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