Aug 4 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange was flat at the opening on Thursday after posting its best session in a week the previous day on the back of strong corporate results.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 77.92 points, or 0.24%, to 32,734.58 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.10% to 4,150.81 points.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.08%, or 10.194 points, to 12,678.353.
After CVS and PayPal on Wednesday, it’s the turn of quarterly releases from Alibaba (+5.39%) and Kellogg (+1.35%) to be hailed by the markets.
The largely positive second-quarter corporate earnings season contributed to a rebound in equity markets after a first half weighed down by concerns over the war in Ukraine, runaway inflation, new lockdowns in China and rising interest rates.
Some observers nevertheless warn against a return to volatility due to uncertainties about economic growth and the pace of monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
In the United States, weekly jobless claims stood at 260,000 during the week to July 30, a figure close to the Reuters consensus.
Investors’ attention is now on the July jobs report, due Friday. An increase of 250,000 non-farm payrolls is expected, after an increase of 372,000 in June.
“What would shake the market would be substantial reductions in growth forecasts, which is if we ended up with a large number of companies simply getting rid of their employees,” said Sam Stovall, Head of Investment Strategy at CFRA.
In stocks, leading lithium producer Albemarle and insurer Cigna Corp opened up 1.86% and 4.24% respectively after raising their full-year forecasts.
The pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly, on the other hand, posted a drop of 2.63%, after having revised its annual profit forecasts downwards and reported lower quarterly results.