|
The U.S stock market motored to more records Thursday as profits keep piling up for Alphabet, Caterpillar and other big businesses. The S&P 500 rallied 1% and topped its prior all-time high to close out its best month in more than five years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 790 points, or 1.6% while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9% to its own record. Wall Street held strong amid manic oil market swings, with Brent crude surging overnight to $114.70 per barrel for July delivery'peaking at $119.50 during the Iran war'before settling at $110.40, nearly unchanged. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to tankers, trapping them in the Persian Gulf, while a U.S. Navy blockade halts Iran's oil exports, driving prices far above pre-war levels near $70. June contracts briefly topped $126 before easing to $114. Better-than-expected U.S. corporate profits helped sustain records on Wall Street. Alphabet led the rally by 10% after the owner of Google and YouTube reported profit for the latest quarter that almost doubled analysts' expectations. Investments in artificial intelligence 'are lighting up every part of the business,' CEO Sundar Pichai said. It's the latest company to deliver fatter profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected, even with very high oil prices and uncertainty about the economy. Caterpillar soared 9.9%, Eli Lilly jumped 9.8% and O'Reilly Automotive leaped 8.4% after all delivered profits for the latest quarter that topped analysts' expectations. That's big because stock prices tend to follow the track of corporate profits over the long term. Meta Platforms tumbled 8.7% even though the company behind Facebook and Instagram made more profit last quarter than expected. Microsoft fell 3.9% after likewise raising its forecast for investments and other capital spending. Amazon rose 0.8% after swinging between gains and losses through the day. It blew past analysts' expectations for earnings in the latest quarter. London's FTSE 100 jumped 1.6% after the Bank of England kept its main interest rate on hold. That followed similar decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of Japan on Tuesday to keep their rates unchanged. Germany's DAX returned 1.4%, and France's CAC 40 rose 0.5% after the European Central Bank also held its own interest rates steady. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.3%, while stocks added 0.1% in Shanghai after a report said China's factory activity slowed slightly in April but remained in expansion territory for the second month. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave up their big overnight gains. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.38% from 4.42% late Wednesday. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia. Reports also suggested the U.S. economy's growth accelerated by less in the first three months of the year than economists expected while a measure of inflation worsened in March by about as much as expected. Powered by Capital Market - Live News
|