Topline
The broader market is largely muted Thursday morning after closing at record highs on President Joe Biden's Inauguration Day, but technology giants are continuing to surge and earnings are still coming in hot despite new jobs data pointing to a still-struggling labor market.
Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon. Shares are up 2% Thursday, pushing the ... [+]
Key Facts
Shortly after the market open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were down about 0.1% after closing at record highs Wednesday, while the Nasdaq, which also nabbed a new record, ticked up 0.2%.
A slew of regional bank holding companies, including Fifth Third Bancorp, Key Corp and TCF Financial continued to deliver strong earnings for the financials sector–albeit also driven by decreased credit provisions (reflecting bullishness on the economy as opposed to better performance); the Nasdaq Bank Index is up 0.3% Thursday.
Among firms heading up gains in the S&P, insurance giant Travelers is up 4% after reporting earnings of nearly $1.3 billion, trouncing analyst estimates by more than 50%.
Tech giants Apple, Alphabet and Amazon–which drove much of the market Wednesday–are climbing about 2%, helping to boost the broader Nasdaq to new highs, while streaming giant Netflix, which surged nearly 20% Wednesday, remains flat at record levels.
Meanwhile, the labor market continues to struggle: Another 900,000 Americans filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week, slightly less than what economists were expecting and 26,000 fewer than the previous week, but still stubbornly above prepandemic levels.
On the other hand, the housing market is still booming, with new data showing that housing starts climbed 5% year over year in December, while the number of new building permits surged 17% from December 2019.
Crucial Quote
"Most of the wires are chalking the Thursday morning equity bid to stimulus hopes following Biden’s well-received inaugural address and a new sense of bipartisanship in Washington–although most inaugural addresses are well-received, and all presidents are afforded a honeymoon period that appears to herald a new era of cooperation," said Vital Knowledge Media Founder Adam Crisafulli Thursday morning. "Investors should be reluctant to assume the atmosphere of comity will last, but the rally’s three pillars of earnings strength, vaccine optimism and massive stimulus are still very much at play."
Surprising Fact
Bitcoin's struggle continues Thursday morning. Its price is down 8% over the past 24 hours, according to crypto data firm CoinMarketCap, pushing it down to about $31,500–roughly 25% below peak levels from just earlier this month.
Tangent
Global markets, on the other hand, edged higher Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 ending the day up 0.8%, while the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 ticks up 0.1% and France's CAC 40 climbs 0.5%.
Further Reading
Another 900,000 Americans Filed For Unemployment Last Week As Biden Preps Major Stimulus Push (Forbes)
Netflix Market Value Surges $30 Billion After Earnings–Here's How High Analysts Think Shares Will Go (Forbes)
6 Big Numbers Showing The Stock Market’s Wild Rise Since Biden Was Last In The White House (Forbes)
