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| U.S. stocks struggle for gains; oil moves higher |
Global markets were shocked on Thursday by the Bank of Japan’s decision to not undertake a further expansion of monetary stimulus, but stocks stateside struggled near mid-session to maintain gains.
At 15:21GMT, or 13:21ET, the Dow Jones slipped 10 points, or 0.05%, while the S&P 500 edged up 3 points, or 0.16%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 23 points, or 0.47%.
The Nasdaq managed to avoid the red thanks to heavy gains in Facebook Inc. The social media company reported after the close on Wednesday that revenue jumped more than 50% thanks to a surge in mobile ad sales and its shares soared around 9%.
Ford Motor Company also rose by more than 3% after a 113% jump in net income led the automaker to easily beat Wall Street consensus.
Thursday’s session was also ripe with M&A activity as Comcast confirmed that it would pay $3.8 billion to acquire Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc, while Abbott Laboratories announced plans to buy St Jude Medical Inc for $25 billion in an effort to expand its heart device business.
Tech earnings will remain in focus on Thursday with both Amazon.com and Baidu reporting after the market close.
On the economic front, the U.S. economy showed worrying signs of deceleration as first-quarter gross domestic product grew at its slowest pace in two years and missed consensus.
In positive news, the labor market continued to show signs of firming as initial jobless claims rose less than expected, and the four-week average remained at the lowest level since 1973.
The dollar was unaffected by the data and continued to trade lower. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, traded down 0.38% at 94.02, at 15:24GMT or 11:24AM ET .
Meanwhile, oil struggled throughout the day to maintain gains after hitting highs for this year on the prior day as data showed that U.S. oil supplies rose to an all-time high last week, underlining concerns over a supply glut.
Both West Texas and Brent had rallied more than 70% since hitting 2016 lows in February and January, respectively, but investors looked set to maintain the bullish bets and continue the rally.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.51% to $45.56 a barrel by 15:25GMT, or 11:25ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.81% to $47.31.
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