US close: Stocks finish mixed as Biden gets to work
Wall Street stocks closed in a mixed state on Thursday, after major indices hit fresh record highs in the previous session on Inauguration Day.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.04% at 31,176.01, while the S&P 500 eked out gains of 0.03% to 3,853.07, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.55% firmer at 13,530.92.
The Dow closed 12.37 points lower on Thursday, having recorded gains in the previous session as market participants focussed on Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington DC and a flurry of executive orders signed by the new President.
Almost immediately after taking the oath of office, Biden released details of his Covid-19 plan, detailing ten executive orders that would increase testing, speed up the rate of vaccinations, provide further funding to local officials and utilise the Defense Production Act to manufacture additional supplies, including masks.
With total confirmed coronavirus cases in the US exceeding 25.0m, claiming the lives of more than 416,160 Americans in the process, investors will now be keen to see if Biden can push his proposed $1.9trn Covid-19 relief bill through Congress.
On the macro front, US jobless claims undershot economists' forecasts slightly over the past week, according to the Department of Labor, as the number of initial unemployment claims declined by 26,000, in seasonally adjusted terms, over the week ended 16 January.
That number came in on top of a downwards revision of 39,000 for the next to last week, while the four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the changes in claims from one week to the next, increased by 23,500 to 848,000.
Elsewhere, manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia region improved significantly in January, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Fed current manufacturing index rose to 26.5 from a revised 9.1 in December, beating expectations for a reading of 12.0 and reaching its best level in nearly a year, while the new orders index increased 28 points to 30.0, hitting its highest level in three months, and the shipments index was up 11 points to 22.7 in January.
Lastly, homebuilding in the US continued to accelerate at a brisk pace at the tail-end of the previous year.
According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally-adjusted terms the annualised pace of new home sales jumped in December at a month-on-month pace of 5.8% to reach 1.669m.
Economists' had forecast a reading of 1.564m.
In the corporate space, United Airlines shares were in the red by 5.73%, after the legacy carrier fell short of both top and bottom-line expectations in its latest quarter.
Baker Hughes lost 1.49% even after it reported its first profitable quarter since it lost $9.9bn as a result of last year's Covid-19 fuelled oil crash.
Union Pacific was down 4.67%, after it also topped profit and revenue expectations on higher shipment volumes.
Dow Jones - Risers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $62.46 6.46%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $136.87 3.67%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $148.72 2.55%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $279.05 1.73%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $131.65 1.21%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $354.98 1.19%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $48.95 0.55%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $224.97 0.28%
3M Co. (MMM) $170.64 0.26%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $57.27 0.02%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $92.01 -3.53%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $48.11 -2.87%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $47.07 -2.12%
Boeing Co. (BA) $207.41 -1.91%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $81.18 -1.55%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $171.28 -1.36%
American Express Co. (AXP) $127.43 -1.17%
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTX) $68.11 -1.06%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $134.83 -0.84%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $141.61 -0.83%
S&P 500 - Risers
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $98.74 10.46%
Borg Warner Inc. (BWA) $43.60 6.65%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $62.46 6.46%
Ford Motor Co. (F) $11.53 6.17%
Cummins Inc. (CMI) $248.03 4.86%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $554.70 3.75%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $136.87 3.67%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $53.51 3.26%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) $91.53 3.13%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $148.72 2.55%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Cimarex Energy Co (XEC) $44.50 -8.61%
Eog Resources Inc. (EOG) $55.03 -8.59%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $18.39 -7.91%
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) $21.54 -6.43%
United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) $42.59 -5.73%
Discover Financial Services (DFS) $94.24 -5.66%
Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) $24.57 -5.46%
Macerich Co (MAC) $13.32 -5.33%
ConocoPhillips (COP) $43.20 -4.78%
Apache Corp. (APA) $16.64 -4.75%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $98.74 10.46%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $62.46 6.46%
Asml Holdings N.V. (ASML) $570.74 3.89%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $554.70 3.75%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $136.87 3.67%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $53.51 3.26%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $116.02 2.72%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $62.94 2.47%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $97.00 2.39%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $141.16 2.29%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $127.35 -3.94%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $543.81 -3.64%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $251.91 -3.45%
Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $33.69 -2.57%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $93.90 -2.56%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $68.44 -2.48%
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $2,109.94 -2.32%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $1,940.19 -2.22%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $47.07 -2.12%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $15.83 -2.10%