U.S. stocks opened mixed on Thursday, with Nasdaq and S&P 500 in the green and Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly down as shares of IBM dropped.
Summary
- Nasdaq Composite opened higher on Thursday, buoyed by premarket gains for Google parent Alphabet’s stock.
- S&P 500 also traded to new highs, but Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped amid declines for IBM.
- Tesla shares fell in early trading after the electric carmaker’s earnings and sales miss.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped and S&P 500 hovered at new peak as investors assessed various market factors. Nasdaq Composite was roughly 0.3% up and like the blue chip and benchmark index, traded close to its record high.
Notably, the Dow closed more than 500 points higher on Wednesday. But the index was down as a 6% dip for IBM stock weighed it down, with the company having reported an earnings miss.
S&P 500, which notched 0.78% and Nasdaq, which added 0.61% during the previous session, looked set to continue higher.
Elsewhere, bullish sentiment in the crypto market saw Bitcoin (BTC) show resilience around $118k. However, cryptocurrencies were largely in red on Thursday.
Why are stocks near all-time highs?
A trade deal between the U.S. and Japan unlocked buying pressure, adding to the overall bullishness that has engulfed stocks since late April.
Recent big bank earnings results have also been followed by earnings beat for leading technology companies. Alphabet reported on Wednesday, and Wall Street cheered the tech giant’s second-quarter earnings beat.
Meanwhile, Google’s forecast for the artificial intelligence space also saw AI related companies such as Nvidia pop. These companies are likely to buoy Nasdaq and send it to new record highs.
However, Tesla shares dropped more than 6% in premarket trading.
As well as a 16% dip in revenue, Elon Musk’s company saw its quarterly sales fall for a second straight quarter, denting investor confidence. Musk said during an earnings call that the EV giant could yet record a few more “rough quarters.”
What else are investors watching?
In addition to the earnings results of Tesla and Google parent Alphabet, sentiment on Wall Street remained focused on tariffs and the economy.
On the former, investors were weighing the market outlook around a potential trade deal between the United States and the European Union. While not in place, reports say a U.S.-EU deal on 15% tariff is close. This would be much lower than the 30% Trump threatened, but within the 15%-50% threshold the U.S. president says will be imposed on various countries starting Aug. 1.
Investor attention will also be on Trump’s expected visit to the Federal Reserve’s headquarters.
Fed chair Jerome Powell has come under fire amid criticism of the central bank’s refurbishment budget. At the center of the row is a reported $2.5 billion renovation splash.
Trump and his allies have seized on the ballooning renovation costs of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters—blaming them on wasteful spending and even suggesting they could justify removing Chair Jerome Powell—while the Fed defends the overhaul as necessary due to inflation, aging infrastructure, and unexpected issues like widespread asbestos removal.
The visit by Trump is widely seen as an escalation of his broader campaign to pressure the central bank, which he has repeatedly criticized for keeping interest rates too high.
