Stock market today: Dow slides as UnitedHealth plunges, Nasdaq, S&P 500 sputter to end down week

Netflix (NFLX) moved slightly higher in after-hours trading on Thursday as the company’s first quarter financial results topped Wall Street’s estimates. The streaming giant also issued second quarter guidance above analysts’ expectations.

Here’s what Netflix reported for the first quarter compared to Bloomberg consensus estimates.

Netflix expects second quarter revenue of $11.04 billion, above analyst estimates of $10.88 billion. Meanwhile, the company said it anticipates second quarter earnings per share of $7.03, above forecasts for $6.24.

Read more here.

Netflix (NFLX) is set to report first quarter financial results after the bell.

Here’s what Wall Street expects for the first quarter, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.

Read more about what Wall Street is anticipating to hear from the streaming giant here.

After the recent bounce back in stocks since April 9, Truist co-chief investment officer Keith Lerner is seeing a diminishing near-term opportunity in US stocks.

In a note to clients on Thursday, Lerner wrote he was downgrading US equities from Neutral to “less attractive.”

“As we look at a combination of historical, fundamental, and technical analysis, the weight of the evidence suggests being slightly more defensive is warranted,” Lerner said.

Lerner noted that a weakening economic growth outlook is one key part of the murkier outlook for stocks. As seen in the chart below, the consensus projection for US gross domestic product (GDP) has been falling throughout 2025.

Now, as President Trump’s tariffs have heightened recession fears, strategists are wondering if consensus growth expectations have come down far enough. If not, the stock market’s recent sell-off could have further to go.

“I’m not sure the stock market has quite processed the probability of a recession,” Ritholtz Wealth Management chief markets strategist Callie Cox told Yahoo Finance.

President Trump doubled down on his recent comments that the Federal Reserve should be lowering interest rates and that he is not happy with how Fed Chair Jerome Powell is doing his job.

“He’s too late, always too late, slow, and I’m not happy with him,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “I let him know it, and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that Powell should lower interest rates and that Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough!”

In November 2024, when Trump was elected, Powell said the president couldn’t fire him.

“Not permitted under the law,” Powell said on Nov. 7 when asked about his views on any legal authorities Trump might have in terms of firing or demoting him or any other top Fed officials.

“No,” he said at another point in a press conference on the question of whether he would leave.

With two major threats to corporate profits this year — tariff uncertainty and a Federal Reserve unwilling or unable to cut rates — Wall Street may be wise to revise its earnings forecasts.

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi writes:

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Eli Lilly (LLY) shares jumped about 16% on Thursday, leading the gainers in the S&P 500, after its experimental pill, orforglipron, showed weight loss of 7.9% and lowered blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes in a late-stage trial.

Shares of the drugmaker were having their largest one-day surge since 2000.

Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat said the announcement was an “important milestone in the next-generation of GLP1s.”

Following the release, Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari raised his 12-month price target on the stock to $1,057 from $1,020.

“Orforglipron will allow for LLY to expand the GLP-1 opportunity to ex-US markets, overweight, and maintenance use in a way only they can execute, with an approach to lower price if the volume gains justify it,” Tewari wrote. “Orforglipron will also allow LLY to meaningfully blunt the impact of any looming pharma tariffs given its US API facilities.”

Respondents to recent surveys from regional Federal Reserve banks are serving as the earliest signs of how the US manufacturing industry is growing concerned about the economic outlook as the scope of President Trump’s tariff plans begins to hit the business world.

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey showed general activity in the sector dropped to an index reading of -26 in April, its lowest reading since April 2023 and well below the 12.5 seen the month prior.

April’s sharp move lower marked the fourth-largest monthly decline in history, only trailing drop-offs seen in 2020 and 2008. The prices paid index, a potential sign of future inflation, shot up to 51, its highest reading since July 2022.

“Businesses and households are saying in surveys that they are experiencing incredibly high uncertainty,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said this week, referencing the St. Louis Fed’s work.

“There’s a lot of research, some of it from the Fed, showing that that does lead to businesses and households stepping back from decisions.”

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Yahoo Finance’s Claire Boston reports:

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America’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton (DHI), warned on Thursday that its key spring selling season has gotten off to a sluggish start as elevated mortgage rates and growing economic uncertainty continue to erode consumer confidence.

“This year’s spring selling season started slower than expected,” D.R. Horton CEO Paul Romanowski told analysts and investors on the company’s second quarter earnings call. “We have been more cautious due to continued affordability constraints and declining consumer confidence.”

The homebuilder reported a 15% year-over-year decline in net sales orders for its fiscal second quarter, which ended March 31. Its total sales of 22,437 homes fell short of analyst estimates for 26,228. Home closings also fell 15% year over year to 19,276, missing the analysts’ forecast of 20,219 homes.

The company’s cancellation rate increased slightly to 16% from a year earlier, signaling some hesitancy among buyers compared to the prior quarter’s 15% rate.

D.R. Horton also dialed back its full-year sales forecast, expecting revenue to land between $33.3 billion and $34.8 billion, below the analysts’ forecasts for $36.02 billion. The company also revised its home closings estimate, projecting a range between 85,000 and 87,000 homes, which missed forecasts for 89,669.

D.R. Horton stock rose 3% in early trade on Thursday following the results. The stock is still down over 13% in 2025 and 17% over the past year.

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Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports:

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Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley reports:

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American Express (AXP) first quarter results signal the credit card company’s affluent customers continue to spend, despite economic uncertainty over tariffs.

“Our performance across key areas, including card member spending, customer retention, demand for our premium products and credit performance, continued to be strong across our customer base, consistent with and in many cases better than what we saw in 2024,” Amex chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri said in the company’s press release.

Amex’s profit rose 6% to $2.58 billion for the first quarter, or $3.64 per share, versus estimates for $3.48. Revenue came in at $16.96 billion versus expectations for $16.95 billion.

Read more here.

US stocks were mixed on Thursday as the major averages were coming off a steep sell-off in the prior session, sparked by comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 1.1%, or over 500 points, weighed by shares of UnitedHealth (UNH). The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) ticked up 0.6%.

Shares of UnitedHealth (UNH) tanked as much as 19% in early trading, dragging the Dow lower, after the health insurer cut its full-year profit forecast.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday hinted the Fed will hold off on any policy moves in order to gain more clarity about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on the economy

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) shares are getting hammered in premarket trading after the insurer cut its profit outlook. And as the chart below shows, UnitedHealth is the largest holding in Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) by weight.

Which helps explain why futures on the Dow lost 500 points (down 1.3%, at last check), even as Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures gained.

Residential construction declined in March as builders reduced the number of projects launched during a critical spring housing season.

Housing starts fell 11.4% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.324 million units, according to data from the Census Bureau released Thursday. That fell below the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who expected an annualized 1.42 million pace. Single-family housing starts dropped 14.2 % at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 940,000.

March’s decline comes as builders try to navigate a complex landscape, which has been made uncertain due to unresolved trade policies with Canada, Mexico, and China. This uncertainty has weighed down builders’ outlook this year.

Builders have cited rising costs for building materials due to tariffs. Data from the National Association of Home Builders found that 60% of builders said their suppliers have already hiked prices or are planning to increase them due to trade levies.

Meanwhile, building permits gained 1.6% from a month earlier to an annualized rate of 1.482 million. At the same time, mortgage rates remain unstable, with some metrics showing rates approaching 7%, highlighting the ongoing challenges prospective buyers face.

Weekly jobless claims fell last week while continuing claims rose, according to Labor Department data released on Thursday morning

For the week ending April 12, weekly jobless claims came in at 215,000, lower than the median expectation of 225,000.

Meanwhile, continuing claims for the week ending April 5 rose by 41,000 to 1.88 million, higher than the 1.87 million expected.

President Trump took to social media on Thursday to criticize the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, for not cutting interest rates soon enough.

Trump said the European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates for the seventh time, “yet ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete ‘mess!'”

Trump went on to write: “Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

During a speech in Chicago on Wednesday, Powell said that the central bank will “wait for greater clarity” before considering any interest rate adjustments. He warned of the “challenging” impacts of the tariff uncertainty, which has gripped the economy and markets in recent weeks.

Bloomberg News reports:

Gold (GC=F) paused its record-breaking rally amid optimism over US-Japan trade talks, after bullion earlier reached another all-time high.

The precious metal edged lower to trade around $3,325 an ounce, after its biggest one-day gain in two years on Wednesday. That jump came on dollar weakness and as Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell signaled a wait-and-see approach to tariffs, pushing back on hopes the central bank would act quickly to soothe investor fears.

The precious metal has climbed almost 27% this year — matching the gain it notched in 2024 — as US President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war creates anxiety over a possible global recession. That uncertainty is benefiting gold, said Nicholas Frappell, global head of institutional market at ABC Refinery based in Sydney.

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