US open: Stocks higher as traders thumb over multiple data points

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street stocks were firmly in the green at the open on Thursday as market participants thumbed over a number of key macro points early on. As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.68% at 41,371.65, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.61% to 5,626.39 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.88% firmer at 17,711.06.

The Dow opened 280.23 points higher on Thursday, reversing losses recorded in the previous session as traders awaited earnings from AI-darling Nvidia.

Those earnings came after the close, with shares in the chipmaker dropping 5% in extended trading despite beating expectations with its Q2 results. Adjusted earnings per share came to $0.68, beating consensus estimates of $0.64, while revenue of $30.04bn exceeded the anticipated $28.bn.

Elsewhere in the corporate space, Best Buy shares rallied in after the retailer hiked FY25 profit guidance on the back of a solid quarterly earnings and revenue beat, while Dollar General shares slumped after the discount retailer's latest batch of quarterly earnings missed Wall Street estimates.

On the macro front, the annual rate of economic growth in the US more than doubled in the second quarter, according to revised estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which said the secondary reading of GDP for the April-June period showed that year-on-year economic expansion accelerated to 3.0%, up from 1.4% growth in the first quarter, surprising economists who widely expected no change from the 2.8% advance estimate released a month ago.

The BEA said that the upgrade was mainly a result of higher consumer spending than previously thought, as well as upward revisions to imports. However, there were still downward revisions to non-residential fixed investment, exports, private inventory investment, federal government spending, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment, the government agency said.

Elsewhere, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at a decelerated pace in the week ended 24 August, according to the Department of Labor, but remained well above the average seen earlier in the year. Initial jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 231,000, broadly in line with market expectations for a reading of 232,000, supporting the belief that the US labour market was softening, as highlighted by a marked downward revision to nonfarm payrolls for the year ended 31 March. Continuing claims, on the other hand, rose by 13,000 to 1.86m, while the four-week moving average , which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, fell by 4,750 to 231,500.

On another note, wholesale inventories edged up by 0.3% month-on-month to $905.0bn in July, according to the Census Bureau, slightly ahead of forecasts for a 0.2% increase and following an upwardly revised print of 0.2% in June to mark a fourth consecutive monthly increase.

Still on data, the US trade deficit in goods widened to $102.7bn in July, according to the Census Bureau, up from June's downwardly revised $96.6bn shortfall, firmly above estimates for a print of $97.1bn for the widest reading in more than two years. Imports expanded by 2.3% to $275.6bn, while exports were broadly unchanged at $172.9bn

Finally, pending home sales fell 8.5% month-on-month in July, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com