Crude Oil Rises; Caterpillar Profit Tops Views

U.S. stocks extended gains toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 500 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.52% to 33,808.80 while the NASDAQ rose 2.34% to 12,131.98. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.86% to 4,131.48.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 5.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Meta Platforms, Inc. META, up 15%, and Nexters Inc. GDEV, up 12%.
• In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

Caterpillar Inc CAT reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings.

Caterpillar reported adjusted earnings of $4.91 per share, compared to $2.88 a year ago, beating the consensus of $3.78. Revenues for the quarter rose 17% year-over-year to $15.9 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $15.25 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Atomera Incorporated ATOM shares shot up 32% to $6.89 after the company posted results for its first quarter. The company announced the execution of a commercial license agreement with STMicroelectronics (ST) that enables the latter to install Atomera's Mears Silicon Technology into its facilities.
• Shares of Bel Fuse Inc. BELFB got a boost, shooting 22% to $37.40 following better-than-expected quarterly results.
• Helen of Troy Limited HELE shares were also up, gaining 22% to $99.90 after the company announced better-than-expected Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Baudax Bio, Inc. BXRX shares dropped 54% to $0.8189 after the company reported the pricing of $4 million public offering.
• Shares of Impinj, Inc. PI were down 35% to $87.70 after the company reported mixed Q1 results and issued weak guidance.
• Aspen Technology, Inc. AZPN was down, falling 25% to $175.00 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results and issued weak FY23 forecast.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $75.01 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,999.20.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $24.975 on Thursday while copper rose 0.9% to $3.8950.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.18%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.27% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.22% The German DAX rose 0.03%, French CAC 40 rose 0.23% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.19%.

The industry confidence indicator in the eurozone fell to -2.6 in April versus a revised reading of -0.5 in the previous month, while economic sentiment indicator edged higher to 99.3 from 99.2. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone rose 1.6 points to -17.5 in April.

Consumer confidence in Italy rose to 105.5 in April, recording the highest level since Feb. 2022, while manufacturing confidence in Italy slipped to 103 in April. Spain's jobless rate increased to 13.26% in the first quarter from 12.87% in the prior three-month period, while retail sales in Spain climbed by 9.5% year-over-year in March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.15%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.42% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbing 0.67%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.6%.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan rose to 98.0 in February versus from preliminary reading of 97.7, while index of coincident economic slipped to 98.6 in February versus a flash reading of 99.2.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims dropped by 16 thousand to 230 thousand in the week ending April 22, versus market estimates of 249 thousand.
• The US economy expanded by an annualized 1.1% in the first quarter versus a 2.6% growth in the prior quarter and missing market estimates of a 2% growth.
• The Kansas City Fed’s manufacturing production index declined to -21 in April from 3 in the prior month.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,611,510 cases with around 1,159,660 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,924,810 cases and 531,420 deaths, while France reported over 39,967,810 COVID-19 cases with 166,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 686,800,980 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,861,780 deaths.