- Stocks closed higher on Thursday ahead of Apple's earnings report and April employment report.
- Economists expect payrolls to rise by 240,000 in April, slowing from 303,000 in March.
- Bank of America's Savita Subramanian said the stock market has more room to maneuver even without a rate cut.
U.S. indexes closed higher on Thursday ahead of Apple's earnings and key labor data due Friday morning.
Major stock averages edged higher on Thursday, capping two days of losses as U.S. Treasury yields fell while mega-cap tech stocks took the lead.
Nvidia led the rebound with a gain of about 3%, while Microsoft rose nearly 1%. Investors braced for Apple's results after the closing bell, with the stock up more than 2% ahead of the earnings release. Expectations are mixed as investors focus on weak demand in China and a sluggish iPhone upgrade cycle.
On Friday, all eyes will be on the April nonfarm payrolls report as a key indicator of the Fed's next move. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect payrolls to rise by 240,000, slowing from the 303,000 increase in March.
Citibank's Veronica Clark recently said in a note that the drop in retirements is consistent with survey data showing a sharp decline in job prospects, and the slowdown in hiring is consistent with rising unemployment.
“There remains a downside risk to future employment statistics, including Friday's April employment report,” he said in a note.
Markets have regained momentum after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell soothed investors worried about the prospect of a rate hike this year by saying a hike in the federal funds rate was unlikely.
Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equities at Bank of America, said the stock market has more room to operate without loosening monetary policy.
“This is actually kind of a reasonable setup for stocks,” he told Bloomberg TV on Thursday, as high interest rates are likely to continue for a long time.
“I think with reasonable market conditions, probably better growth than we've seen in the past, higher interest rates and slightly higher inflation, we're headed for a soft landing,” he said.
Here are the U.S. indexes as of Thursday's 4 p.m. close:
Here's what else is going on:
In Commodities, Fixed Income and Cryptocurrencies:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil was almost unchanged at $79.03 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.3% to $83.70 a barrel.
- Gold rose to $2,312.30 per ounce.
- The 10-year US Treasury yield fell to 4.579%.
- Bitcoin rose 2.8% to trade at $59,217.
