Key Events
Pinned Post
Stocks opened a tick higher Thursday morning, supported by the bond market, even as a raft of earning reports failed to impress. Amazon will be the next key test.
The Dow rose 62 points at the open, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.2% each.
Moves are getting influenced by companies like Ford that offered a lackluster outlook for the year. Ford expects at the most $8.5 billion in 2025 operating profit. Wall Street projected about $9.3 billion. Honeywell’s earnings guidance was below projections, while Qualcomm said its licensing revenue would be below expectations.
Taken together, the results are tempering on the stock market’s gains.
What’s helping offset it are bonds. The 10-year yield is near its low for the year. Lower yields can help lift stock prices because they signal that larger companies can get debt at cheaper rates. Investors may also seek higher returns in equities when bond yields are low.
New Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he and President Donald Trump are focused on bringing down the 10-year rate rather than worry about the short-term interest rates that the Fed is setting. The Treasury has also offered no indication that it will increase bond auction sizes anytime soon. Both factors are positive for yields.
Amazon reports earnings today after the market closes. Cloud business will be in focus after Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet both reported disappointing growth in their cloud business.
