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* Facebook jumps after upbeat quarterly revenue
* Tesla jumps after reporting profitable quarter
* U.S. weekly jobless claims remain elevated
* McDonald's dips as quarterly profit slides
* Futures down: Dow 1.03%, S&P 500 1.01%, Nasdaq 0.35%
(Adds comments, details, updates prices throughout)
By C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
open lower on Thursday at the end of a strong month for stock
markets globally as a grim U.S. jobless claims report
overshadowed upbeat results from Facebook and Tesla.
The Labor Department's report showed initial unemployment
claims totaled 3.84 million for the week ended April 25, down
from 4.44 million in the previous week and a record 6.87 million
in March. Although the downward trend raised hopes that the
coronavirus outbreak's impact on the labor market had peaked,
analysts said investors were still wary of the pace of an
economic recovery from a looming recession.
"In large part this data is seen as something we've already
taken for granted," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at
National Securities in New York.
"We know that the economic data, especially as it pertains
to labor, is bad and is going to get worse."
Still, the S&P 500 .SPX is on course for its best month
since 1974, powered by dramatic U.S. monetary and fiscal
stimulus and hopes of a revival in business activity as states
reopen from lockdowns.
All three U.S. stock indexes ended Wednesday's session
closer to all-time highs reached in February after positive
partial data from a trial of Gilead Science Inc's GILD.O
antiviral remdesivir showed an improved recovery rate in
COVID-19 patients.
The Federal Reserve pledged on Wednesday to expand emergency
programs to revive growth but dashed hopes for a fast rebound,
saying the economy could feel the weight of consumer fear and
social distancing for a year. At 9:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 254 points,
or 1.03%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 29.75 points, or
1.01% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 31.75 points, or
0.35%.
Analysts forecast a sharper decline in second-quarter
corporate earnings, with profits for S&P 500 companies expected
to fall 36% following a 15% anticipated drop in the first
quarter, according to Refinitiv data.
Facebook Inc FB.O jumped 7.1% in premarket trading after
beating analysts' estimates for first-quarter revenue and saying
it had seen "signs of stability" for ad sales in April after a
plunge in March. Electric car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O climbed 7.3% after
posting its third straight quarterly profit, taking investors by
surprise as its automaker peers were hit by a slump in consumer
demand and factory shutdowns. But Twitter TWTR.N fell 6.3% even as it said ads sales had
slightly rebounded in Asia after a plunge due to the coronavirus
outbreak and that it had accelerated work on tools to attract
key advertisers. McDonald's Corp MCD.N shed 1.6% after it reported a 16.7%
slide in quarterly profit as most of its restaurants across the
globe limited their services to deliveries and take-aways.
American Airlines AAL.O fell 6.8% as the airline operator
posted its first quarterly loss since emerging from bankruptcy
in 2013 and warned of a $70 million a day cash burn.
The two remaining FAANG stocks - Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Amazon.com AMZN.O - will report results after markets close.