US open: Stocks advance as Q3 GDP tops estimates
Wall Street stocks opened higher on Thursday as major indices attempted to claw back some of what had been lost over the last two days of heavy losses.
As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.33% higher at 26,608.04, while the S&P 500 was 0.90% stronger at 3,300.48 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.32% firmer at 11,150.20.
The Dow Jones opened 88.09 points higher on Thursday, barely making a dent in the more than 900 point loss recorded in the previous session.
Thursday's main focus was an advance reading of the US' third-quarter gross domestic product which revealed that US GDP bounced back from the collapse in activity witnessed over the preceding three months during the quarter.
According to the Department of Commerce, GDP shot back at an annualised pace of 33.1% following the second quarter's 31.4% plunge. However, despite the record pace of expansion registered over the three months to September, GDP remained 3.5% below its end 2019 level, before the onset of the pandemic.
Also in focus, jobless claims hit a seven month low last week, according to the Department of Labor, dropping by 40,000 over the week ended 24 October. The four-week moving average for initial claims slipped by 24,500 to 787,750, while continuing claims also dropped - down 709,000 to hit 7.75m.
In the corporate space, Molson Coors beat both earnings and revenue estimates, while Dunkin Brands also topped earnings estimates thanks to a bump in same-store sales.
Elsewhere, Kellogg raised its full-year guidance and Ralph Lauren said that the Covid-19 pandemic had led to a 30% quarterly decline in sales.
Still to come, Amazon, Activision Blizzard, Alphabet, Apple, Western Union, Starbucks, MGM Resorts, Shake Shack, Facebook, Twitter and Shopify were all scheduled to update the market on their most recent trading quarters after the close.