Text size
Stocks were posting muted moves Thursday as a fiscal-stimulus bill looks increasingly likely to be less than $1 trillion.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials Average were hovering around the flat line, with the index up 19 points, or 0.06%. Futures on the
S&P 500
were down 0.04% and the
Nasdaq Composite
futures were 0.1% higher.
Big tech stocks, which account for roughly 22% of the S&P 500’s market capitalization, were bringing the index up a bit.
Apple
(AAPL) and
Amazon.com
(AMZN) rose 0.4% and 0.25%, respectively. Other sectors weren’t gaining much traction. Bank stocks, after enjoying a solid run this week, were lower.
Bank of America
(BAC) fell 0.4% as treasury long-dated yields, which have risen this week, barely budged. Higher long-term rates lift bank profits.
Jobless claims for the past week beat estimates, with 712,000 people filing for benefits against expectations of 780,000. It is also a big drop from the previous result of 787,000.
A big focus is on fiscal stimulus. Democrats in Congress have implied they may accept a bipartisan fiscal stimulus bill that is far lighter than want. The bill, as it stands, is $900 billion, far less than Democrats’ wishes for $2.4 trillion and above Republicans wishes of $600 billion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it must pass soon and that the two sides must come to an agreement.
The price of crude oil fell 0.7% to $44 a barrel. OPEC is nearing an agreement to boost oil production by 500,000 barrels a day starting next month.
Here were some big stock movers Thursday morning:
Zscaler
(ZS) rose 11% after the company posted earnings per share of 14 cents, beating estimates of 6 cents, and revenue of $142 million, beating estimates of $132 million.
Shares of
Okta
(OKTA) rose 6% after the company posted EPS of 4 cents, beating estimates of 1 cent, and revenue of $214 million, beating estimates of $202 million.
PVH
(PVH) shares rose 1.5% after the company posted EPS of $1.32, beating expectations of 24 cents, and revenue of $2.1 billion, beating estimates of $2 billion.
Coscto (COST) fell 1% after the company reported that November comparable sales rose 13.4% year-over-year, beating estimates of 13%.
Five Below
(FIVE) shares rose 2.5% after the company posted EPS of 36 cents, beating expectations of 20 cents, and revenue of $476 million, beating expectations of $446 million.
Write to Jacob Sonenshine at [email protected]