Stock market news live updates: Stocks open higher, oil extends gains – Yahoo Money

Stock News

Posted on April 24, 2020

Stocks rose on the heels of a volatile trading day Thursday, when stocks were whipsawed amid conflicting signals over the results of a clinical trial for a coronavirus antiviral treatment candidate. The latest batch of economic data released Friday morning showed further signs of stress on the U.S. manufacturing sector, with durable goods orders down the most in six years in March.

West Texas intermediate crude oil futures (CL=F) were on track for a fourth straight day of advances, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly said he was considering a lending program for U.S. oil companies.

The coronavirus pandemic showed further, but still tentative, signs of leveling off on Thursday, with hospitalizations and new diagnoses declining in the hardest-hit U.S. states of New York and New Jersey. Separately, however, California reported its “deadliest day” on Thursday, adding 115 new deaths, or the highest for the state in a 24-hour period. Earlier this week, some southern states began a multi-phase economic reopening process. However, many medical experts have warned that easing social distancing restrictions across the country too soon could backfire and trigger another major wave of infections.

Still, weeks-long social distancing measures have ravaged the U.S. economy. Further signs of the devastating economic toll from the coronavirus pandemic emerged on Thursday, with the Labor Department reporting another 4.427 million individuals filed new unemployment claims last week. The new data marked the third straight week that new jobless claims fell on a week-over-week basis, but brought the total number of initial unemployment insurance claims over the last five weeks to more than 26 million.

“Net, net, jobless claims are warning that the worst isn’t over yet for the American economy with businesses and consumers alike being sucked down into the abyss of the pandemic recession,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG, wrote in a note Thursday.

Thursday after market close, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $486 billion relief package to provide funds to small businesses and hospitals upended by the pandemic. The legislation, which boosts a vital small business aid program that ran out of funds last week, was cleared by the Senate earlier this week, and heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing.

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9:45 a.m. ET: Analysts see the beginning of the end to oil rout

The biggest market story of the week has been crude, which spooked investors by turning negative — only to skyrocket in subsequent sessions. The macro theme is still oversupply in a world where demand has been hit hard by the coronavirus, but some market observers think oil has stabilized for the time being.

Veteran commodity watcher Vandana Hari told Yahoo Finance on Friday that it was “hard to say” if the worst is behind us, but he does think there’s a “tentative floor” in oil. Still, Hari echoed other market participants who think U.S. producers are in deep trouble.

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9:33 a.m. ET: Stocks open higer

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 9:33 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): +14.13 points (+0.51%) to 2,811.93
Dow (^DJI): +119.8 points (+0.51%) to 23,637.1
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +0.34 points (+0.35%) to 8,524.29
Crude (CL=F): +$0.81 (+4.91%) to $17.31 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): +$9.00 (+0.52%) to $1,754.40 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +0.7 bps to yield 0.618%

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8:30 a.m. ET: Durable goods orders plunge by most since 2014 in March, missing expectations

Durable goods orders sank 14.4% in March, according to the Census Bureau’s preliminary monthly results, marking the biggest drop in six years. This was worse than the decline of 12.0% anticipated, according to Bloomberg data of consensus economist expectations. In February, durable goods orders rose by 1.1%.

Excluding transportation, durable goods orders fell 0.2% in March, or better than the decline of 6.5% expected. Durable goods orders excluding transportation fell 0.7% in February.

Non-defense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, unexpectedly rose by 0.1% in March, while a 6.7% decline had been anticipated. This measure is used as a closely watched proxy of business investment plans.

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7:20 a.m. ET: American Express net income slides 76% over last year as pandemic curbs consumer spending, drives higher provisions for losses

American Express (AXP) reported net income of $367 million, or 41 cents, for the fiscal first quarter, representing a drop 76% over last year’s $1.6 billion, or $1.80 per share.

The results were driven in large part by a significant build in the payment company’s provisions for losses of $2.6 billion, including a $1.7 billion reserve build to “reflect deterioration of the global estimated macroeconomic outlook as a result of COVID-19 impacts.”

American Express highlighted the impact the coronavirus pandemic was having on customer spending behavior, noting that the effects “accelerated in April” and “dramatically” impacted their volumes.

“The first two months of 2020 continued the strong momentum we have delivered over the past two years, but we’re now in a different world,” CEO Stephen J. Squeri said in a statement.

Overall first-quarter adjusted earnings per share were $1.98, or better than the $1.60 expected, according to Bloomberg data. First-quarter revenue of $10.3 billion missed consensus estimates for $10.6 billion.

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