Nasdaq notches 5th straight gain, Amazon hits record

1.5M Americans filed first time jobless claims in the week ended June 13

U.S. equity markets ended the session mixed on Thursday after a weekly report showed job losses since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have reached 46 million.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 19403.947849 +185.78 +0.97%
AMZN AMAZON.COM INC. 210.71 +2.82 +1.36%

Even so, the Nasdaq managed to notch a fifth straight day of gains helped by the likes of Amazon which hit a fresh record. The stock has gained over 43 percent this year.

Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39.51 points or 0.15 percent, and the S&P 500 was little changed.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 44722.06 -138.25 -0.31%
SP500 S&P 500 5998.74 -22.89 -0.38%

Stocks curbed earlier losses after President Trump delivered some optimistic comments during the final hour of trading on the pace of the economic recovery, helping ease disappointing unemployment figures.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended June 13 totaled 1.51 million, the Labor Department said Thursday, raising the total number of job losses to about 46 million since stay-at-home orders were issued in March. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting 1.3 million claims.

Looking at stocks, cruise operator Carnival Corp. reported a preliminary second-quarter loss of $4.4 billion and said it expects to burn $650 million a month during the second half of the year as the pandemic keeps ships docked.

Grocery-store chain Kroger reported earnings and revenue that outpaced expectations as digital sales soared 92 percent year-over-year.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
CCL CARNIVAL CORP. 25.99 +0.56 +2.18%
KR THE KROGER CO. 60.15 -0.93 -1.52%

Tesla flirted with a close above $1,000 a share for just the second time on record after Jefferies raised its price target to $1,200, saying the electric vehicle is extending its lead over competitors.

Embattled rental-car company Hertz pulled the plug on its plan to issue $500 million of stock. Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 22.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
TSLA TESLA INC. 357.09 +11.93 +3.46%
HTZ HERTZ GLOBAL 4.72 -0.20 -4.07%

Spotify and Kim Kardashian West have reached a deal for a podcast about the socialite’s work with the nonprofit legal organization Innocence Project, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gunmaker Smith & Wesson gained ahead of the release of its quarterly results, which was expected after the closing bell.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
SPOT SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA 480.27 +3.31 +0.69%
SWBI SMITH & WESSON BRANDS 13.72 +0.14 +1.03%

On the commodities front, West Texas Intermediate crude was higher by 2.32 percent $38.84 a barrel while gold dropped $4.40 to $1,724.80 an ounce.

U.S. Treasurys gained, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 0.693 percent.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE dropped 0.47 percent after the Bank of England increased its bond-buying program by 16 percent to 745 billion British pounds. France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were also weaker, trading down 0.75 percent and 0.81 percent, respectively.

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Markets ended mixed in Asia, with China’s Shanghai Composite edging up 0.12 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei slid 0.07 percent and 0.45 percent, respectively.