© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Wall Street sign is painted outside the New York Stock Exchange in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P and Nasdaq closed lower on Thursday at the end of a shortened holiday week as bond yields continued to climb and investors braced for earnings and economic data. mixture.
All three major US stock indexes fell weekly ahead of the Good Friday holiday.
“It’s a combination of concerns that continue there,” said Ryan Detrick, director of market strategy at LPL Financial (NASDAQ:) in Charlotte, North Carolina. “So far, it’s been a mixed bag-earnings season, and that, coupled with high inflation and a hawkish Fed, has led to selling ahead of the holiday weekend.”
Rising 10-year Treasury yields weighed on growth stocks, sending Nasdaq and Nasdaq into negative territory, while the Dow posted more modest losses.[US/]
“Higher yields pressure growth stocks higher because their net present value … is affected as yields move higher,” Detrick said.
A quartet of major US banks have turned their first-quarter reporting season into overdue, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:), Morgan Stanley (NYSE :), and Wells Fargo (NYSE 🙂 & Co all results posted.
While all four of these companies beat Street estimates, they also reported a sharp drop in profits. Their share price reaction was mixed and the broader S&P 500 Financials closed lower.
“There are some concerns this earnings season,” added Detrick. “Expectations are the lowest since the recovery began and leave investors cautious about how companies will step onto the earnings altar in the coming weeks.”
A flurry of economic data showed soaring gasoline prices helped retail sales beat consensus and sent import prices posting their biggest jump in nearly 11 years.
The data went against other recent indicators, which appeared to underpin aggressive inflation-quenching actions from the Federal Reserve in the coming months, including a series of 50 basis point rate hikes. .
Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc President Elon Musk offers to receive Twitter Inc (NYSE:) private with a $41 billion cash offer. Shares of the social media company fluctuated throughout the session but closed in the negative territory.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 54.38 points, or 1.22%, to 4,392.21 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 293.67 points, or 2.15%, to 13,349.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109.83 points, or 0.32%, to 34,454.76.
The first-quarter reporting season is still in its infancy, with 34 companies in the S&P 500 already reporting.
Analysts now expect S&P 500 total annual earnings growth of 6.3%, less optimistic than the 7.5% gain forecast at the start of the year.
Thursday marks the monthly expiration date for options contracts, an event that has occurred in the recent past that has increased stock market volatility as investors make corrections. for millions of expiring options contracts on stocks, ETFs and indices.
