Hims & Hers stock pares losses on data despite Novo Nordisk litigation fears
Investing.com - Canada’s main stock exchange was down on Thursday, as investors poured through major tech sector earnings and assessed the outlook for U.S. trade policy.
By 4.05 ET, the S&P/TSX 60 index standard futures contract had inched down by 2.31 points, or 0.14%.
Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index shed 0.16%, or 44 points at 27,372.26.
U.S. stock index traded in a muted fashion Thursday as investors digested quarterly reports from widely-watched companies as well sifting through talk of possible trade deals.
At 4:00 p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 316 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 index rose 0.1%, and the NASDAQ Composite gained 0.2%.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rises on strong quarter; Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) falls
Roughly a quarter of firms in the S&P 500 have now reported their latest quarterly earnings, and the second-quarter reporting period has been generally robust -- 67% of these groups have topped analysts’ revenue estimates and 88% have surpassed earnings per share projections.
One of the success stories was Alphabet, as the Google parent handily beat Wall Street expectations with its second-quarter earnings.
The company flagged growing demand for its cloud services, and hiked its 2025 capital spending target to about $85 billion from $75 billion, while also forecasting higher spending in 2026.
The company saw increasing adoption of its AI offerings, while AI integration into its core search engine also boosted customer engagement. This saw advertising revenue, Alphabet’s biggest moneymaker, surge 10%.
On the flip side, Tesla slumped with CEO Elon Musk flagging a “few rough quarters” for the electric vehicle maker after it clocked an underwhelming second quarter.
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) stock also fell after the technology company’s second quarter software revenue missed expectations.
PMI data due
Away from the corporate sector, there are weekly jobless claims and more housing data to digest, but the focus will be on the publication of flash purchasing managers’ index figures later in the session ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
Economists anticipate that the preliminary manufacturing PMI reading from S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) for July will come in at 52.7, down slightly from 52.9 in the previous month. A gauge of services activity is tipped to edge up slightly to 53.0 from 52.9.
Numbers above the 50-point mark indicate expansion.
Despite uncertainty around the trajectory of Trump’s aggressive tariffs, the U.S. economy has shown broad signs of resilience.
Crude rises on drop in stockpiles
Oil prices rose, helped by data showing a sharp decline in U.S. crude stockpiles, while investors cautiously awaited more information on trade deals to ease pressure on the global economy.
At 06:55 ET, Brent futures climbed 0.7% to $69.03 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.9% to $65.86 per barrel.
Both contracts have declined for the last four sessions on concerns that a global trade war would hit energy demand.
{{8849|U.S. crcrude oil inventories fell 3.17 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, far outpacing expectations of a 1.6 million-barrel draw.
Gold slips
Gold prices fell, extending recent declines as trade deal rumors and batch of strong tech earnings boosted risk appetite and further sapped demand for safe havens.
At 06:56 ET, spot gold fell 0.7% to $3,363.33 an ounce, while gold futures dipped 0.9% to $3,367.72/oz.
The yellow metal has reversed most of its gains made this week on Wednesday and Thursday, retreating from an over one-month high.
However, gold remains largely within the $200/oz trading range seen for most of this year as it struggled to retake record highs over $3,500/oz hit in April.