US stocks will be in focus today, as investors await the release of various economic reports.
Context: US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, after declining for two consecutive days. Investor sentiment was lifted by stability in crude prices and some strong earnings reports.
Details: After declining more than 1,000 points over the first two trading days of the week, the Dow delivered a rebound yesterday. Battered oil prices found a floor and then began recovering, with US crude oil spiking more than 19% on Wednesday.
A slew of companies also traded higher on solid quarterly results, which added to the positive market sentiment. According to Refinitiv data, around 67% of 84 companies from the S&P 500 reported upbeat earnings.
The Dow spiked 457 points to settle at 23,475.82 on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 rose 2.3% to 2,799. The Nasdaq 100 surged 2.7%, to close at 8,495.38.
Netflix reported better-than-expected quarterly results, while Kimberly-Clark also exceeded earnings and sales expectations for the first quarter. Chipotle Mexican Grill’s shares surged 12% on better-than-expected profit, while Snap’s shares skyrocketed around 37%.
In other news, June futures for gold rose 3% to settle at $1,738.30 an ounce, while the 10-year Treasury note yield rose 4.7 basis points to 0.618%.
What to watch: Investors continue to monitor the daily coronavirus figures, with the total number of cases surpassing 2,630,770 around the world. The number of positive COVID-19 cases in the US has exceeded 842,620 with around 46,780 deaths.
Investors are awaiting a basket of economic reports from the country, including initial jobless claims, new home sales, Kansas City Fed's manufacturing production index, manufacturing and services PMI. The number of people claiming for jobless benefits is expected to total 4.2 million in the recent week. The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI is expected to drop to 38 in April, versus a revised reading of 48.5. Services PMI is also projected to decline to 31.5, from the previous 39.8. Sales of new homes, which fell 4.4% in February, are likely to decline 15% in March.
Other Markets: European indices were trading lower at 9:00a.m. GMT, with the FTSE 100, German 30 and French 40 down by 0.4%, 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively.