Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -0.26% fell 0.3%, South Korea’s Kospi SEU, -0.09% traded flat and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.16% was down 0.5%.
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Electric-car maker Tesla lost $7.86, or 3.4 percent, to $220.50 after investors weren’t impressed with CEO Elon Musk’s “master plan” for the company, which was posted on Tesla’s website late Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite sank 0.3 percent, to 5,073.90.
Stock indexes were listless in morning trading Thursday after the European Central Bank held interest rates at record lows and a series of US companies reported mixed earnings. The company also raised its earnings forecast for the year. But while the data has often topped analysts’ forecasts, they still haven’t been all that strong. Microsoft Corp. and Morgan Stanley were among the latest US companies to report earnings that surpassed forecasts in a results season that has delivered more positive surprises than negative ones. That could keep stocks hemmed in, says Rich Weiss, senior portfolio manager at American Century. Market disappointment over the European Central Bank pause reflected in the fall of the Nikkei, he said. “This is a case where the USA stock market is the only place to go. It’s the best relative purchase out of markets”.
U.S. COMPANIES: Technology stocks finished higher on Wall Street, following an encouraging report from Microsoft that said momentum in its cloud-computing business helped it to return to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter.
FULLY EQUIPPED: United Rentals surged $9.65, or 13.8 percent, to $79.51 after reporting better quarterly results than expected.
BOUGHT: EBay jumped $3.21, or 11.9 per cent, to $30.20 after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. It was the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The equity gauge has fallen only three days in the past 19 sessions and is the world’s best performing developed-market measure in 2016, up 14 percent this year. Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $1.36 a gallon, heating oil fell 3 cents to $1.37 a gallon and natural gas rose 3 cents to $2.69 per 1,000 cubic feet.
CHIPPED: Intel fell $1.49, or 4.2 per cent, to $34.19 after the chipmaker reported slower revenue growth last quarter than analysts expected.
The dollar index was down 0.3 percent at 96.852, nudged further away from a four-month peak of 97.323 scaled on Wednesday.
OVERSEAS: European markets were mixed.
The country’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.77% to 16,810.22, with a relatively weaker yen helping to push stocks higher. A big drop in business activity in the United Kingdom raised expectations of more central bank stimulus there. Brent crude, the worldwide benchmark, fell 29 cents to $46.88 a barrel.
OIL: U.S. crude shed 24 cents to $44.51 in NY. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.57 per cent from 1.58 per cent a day earlier. That put pressure on gold prices and core government bond yields.
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The comment boosted the yen, which stood at 105.88 to the dollar, stronger than 106.60 to seen in NY. The euro climbed to $1.1035 from $1.1027 on Thursday.
