US close: Markets finish green after relatively stable session

Wall Street stocks finished higher on Thursday, bringing traders some sense of relief after the rollercoaster trading conditions seen during the previous session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 1.43% at 26,378.19, the S&P 500 added 1.88% to 2,938.09, and the Nasdaq 100 was ahead 2.29% at 7,724.83.

At the open, the Dow was 145.76 points higher, after US stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday, when a late rally helped to erase a massive drop seen earlier in the day.

At the same time, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note briefly slid below 1.6%, hitting its lowest level since 2016 in the process and further narrowing the spread versus the yield on two-year notes, a widely watched recession indicator.

On Thursday morning, however, the 10-year yield was back up at around 1.75%, although it remained far beneath the level of overnight interest rates.

Gold futures also jumped by more than 2.0% on Wednesday, sending them above the $1,500 per ounce level for the first time in six years.

In the process, its year-to-date gains also overtook those of the S&P 500.

Investors spent much of the session keeping an eye on the Chinese yuan after the nation's central bank set the official reference rate for the currency at 7.0039 yuan per US dollar on Thursday - its weakest level since April 2008.

Some strong data out of China overnight also helped calm Wall Street investors down, as the Asian nation revealed exports had risen at a 3.3% year-on-year clip in July - a much better than expected reading than the 2.0% decline predicted by economists.

Elsewhere, Donald Trump took some fresh swings at the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

"Our problem is a Federal Reserve that is too proud to admit their mistake of acting too fast and tightening too much," he tweeted.

"Incompetence is a terrible thing to watch."

In terms of macro news, a key indicator of US labour demand continued to point to robust hiring conditions through last week.

According to the Department of Labor, initial US jobless claims fell by 8,000 during the week ending on 3 August to reach 209,000. Economists at Barclays Research had pencilled-in a print of 215,000.

Continuing claims, which are those that are not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 27 July, dipped by 15,000 to hit 1.684m.

With data still in mind, US wholesale inventories for June were revised lower to show them unchanged, pointing to a slowdown in the pace of inventory accumulation.

According to the Commerce Department, stocks at wholesalers advanced 7.6% on a year-on-year basis in June.

On the corporate front, shares of Kraft Heinz slid 8.58% after first-half profits slumped, while those in Viacom were ahead 3.74% after beating on quarterly estimates.

Caterpillar shares took reversed earlier lisses, climbing 1.03% after analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded its shares from 'buy' to 'neutral', as a result of its exposure to and reliance on China.

Dow Jones - Risers

Visa Inc. (V) $179.88 4.30%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $123.28 3.27%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $117.43 2.77%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $53.69 2.72%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $138.89 2.67%
American Express Co. (AXP) $125.29 2.24%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $203.43 2.21%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $83.00 2.09%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $131.48 2.08%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $72.38 2.00%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $137.96 -2.76%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $109.86 -0.52%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $140.13 -0.43%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $247.62 -0.27%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $36.87 -0.22%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $30.52 0.00%
3M Co. (MMM) $164.23 0.31%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $84.73 0.45%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $207.00 0.48%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $131.68 0.70%

S&P 500 - Risers

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) $33.92 16.20%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $22.92 12.30%
Albemarle Corp. (ALB) $73.49 12.28%
Concho Resouces Inc. (CXO) $73.43 10.16%
CVS Health Corp (CVS) $59.04 9.15%
Assurant Inc. (AIZ) $119.46 8.98%
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $1,941.01 6.56%
Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $12.87 5.76%
FMC Corp. (FMC) $88.80 5.63%
Lennar Corp. Class A (LEN) $50.86 5.54%

S&P 500 - Fallers

CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $10.69 -10.54%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $28.22 -8.58%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $47.04 -6.70%
Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) $37.45 -4.97%
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) $33.49 -3.68%
Centerpoint Energy Inc. (CNP) $27.83 -3.57%
Fluor Corp. (FLR) $20.02 -3.52%
Comerica Inc. (CMA) $63.22 -2.93%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $137.96 -2.76%
Macy's Inc. (M) $20.32 -2.54%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $22.92 12.30%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $688.10 12.15%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $238.02 10.26%
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $1,941.01 6.56%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $152.09 5.49%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $109.84 4.69%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $55.20 4.49%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $32.86 4.28%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $182.94 4.15%
Synopsys Inc. (SNPS) $131.97 3.88%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $28.22 -8.58%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (TFCF) $49.61 0.00%
Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $179.20 0.00%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (TFCFA) $49.69 0.00%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $106.79 0.15%
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) $274.80 0.18%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $62.58 0.19%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $76.89 0.26%
Biogen Inc (BIIB) $238.23 0.27%
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) $270.98 0.34%