The stock market rose Thursday afternoon amid rising jobless claims, underpinned by falling July wholesale prices. Walt Disney jumped on earnings and robust Disney+ subscriber growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was leading the major indexes, rising 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite traded 0.1% lower while the S&P 500 gained 0.3%. The small-cap Russell 2000 index gave up some early gains but was still higher by 0.5% in afternoon trading.
Volume spiked more than 27% on the Nasdaq but just 3% on the NYSE vs. the same time on Wednesday.
U.S. Stock Market Today Overview |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Symbol | Price | Gain/Loss | % Change |
| Dow Jones | (0DJIA) | 33467.91 | +158.40 | +0.48 |
| S&P 500 | (0S&P5) | 4225.83 | +15.59 | +0.37 |
| Nasdaq | (0NDQC ) | 12855.94 | +1.13 | +0.01 |
| Russell 2000 | 197.02 | +1.40 | +0.72 | |
| IBD 50 | 29.65 | +0.06 | +0.20 | |
Last Update: 12:00 PM ET 8/11/2022 |
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The Innovator IBD 50 ETF gained 0.2%.
Jobless Claims Rise: A Threat To The Stock Market?
Initial jobless claims rose to 262,000, slightly above estimates for 260,000, and above the 248,000 reported the previous week.
The producer price index, which measures the monthly change in the price of goods and services received by manufacturers, fell 0.5% in July from the previous month. Economists had expected a 0.3% increase. The PPI climbed 9.8% from a year ago, also less than expected.
"A rising risk to the market outlook is the upward trend in individuals claiming unemployment benefits," said Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial. "Initial claims and continuing claims have inched higher for the last four months and suggest that the labor market will likely slow further throughout the back half of this year."
Roach also noted that "Cooling prices paid by producers portend a further cooling for consumer prices, as producer prices are further up the inflation pipelines. We expect producer prices to ease as supply chains improve."
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose six basis points to 2.84%. Crude oil prices jumped 1.6% to $93.40 per barrel. Oil stocks rose.
The S&P Energy Select Sector ETF jumped 2.5%, easily outpacing all other S&P sectors.
Disney Soars On Subscriber Growth
Shares of Disney surged 6% after the company reported a second-quarter profit of $1.09 per share on revenue of $21.5 billion, topping estimates for 98 cents EPS. However, revenue came up short compared to $20.99 billion consensus.
Subscription growth for Disney+ grew by 14.4 million while worldwide theme park revenue picked up, despite fears of inflation.
Disney stock is climbing off a mid-July low, working on its fourth straight weekly advance. However, at around 119 a share it's still trading well below its March 2021 high of 203.02.
The Dow Jones leader plans to increase prices for Disney+ streaming service by 38%, along with comparable increases for its Hulu and ESPN+ units. The 221 million subscriber base is now larger than Netflix's subscriber base. Disney is targeting 260 million subscribers by 2024.
Recent IPO Gains On Better-Than-Expected Sales
Recent stock market IPO Privia Health soared nearly 10% despite reporting a 10-cent per share loss on $335.5 million in second-quarter sales. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the medical software-maker to report no profit but just $313 million in sales.
Golar LNG stock advanced 4% on Thursday after the liquefied natural gas transport/process outfit delivered stronger-than-expected earnings for the second quarter.
The financial results come just one week after Freeport LNG reported that its key export terminal, which has been offline since early June, should resume partial operations in October.
IBD 50 oil exploration and production company Matador Resources is breaking out of a cup-with-handle base with a buy point of 58.68.
Follow Michael Molinski on Twitter @IMmolinski
