Stocks were higher from the open despite a record weekly jobless claim figure, but the move seemed tentative. That was until President Trump gave a major boost to oil prices, and subsequently equities, with his tweets about a production cut that may be coming from Saudi Arabia and Russia. A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly said Putin had not spoken to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, but reports following the President's tweet indicate that an OPEC+ meeting is going to be called to discuss pulling back on oil production.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In U.S. data, initial jobless claims spiked 3.34M to 6.65M in the week ended March 28. The trade deficit narrowed 12.2% to $39.9B in February, which was more than expected as imports tumbled 2.5% to $247.5B and exports dropped 0.4% to $207.5B.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 965,246 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49,236 deaths due to the disease.
TOP NEWS: The 20 best performers on the S&P 500 near midday were all oil & gas explorers and producers or chemical makers levered to oil after President Trump tweeted, "Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!"
Following Trump's tweet, a spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin had not spoken to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has not confirmed an oil production cut, but did call for an "urgent meeting" of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia, according to state-run media, Bloomberg added.
Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) are up 3% on Thursday after its competitor in China, Luckin Coffee (LK), announced that it is probing "fabricated transactions" that make its prior guidance unreliable and prompt an investigation of its financial reports. Meanwhile, shares of the Chinese coffee retailer have cratered, dropping 73% near midday.
Dow member Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) reported better than expected earnings and revenue for its second fiscal quarter, but also said it is "not in a position to accurately forecast the future impacts" of the COVID-19 situation given the many rapidly changing variables related to the pandemic.
Ford (F) announced that its overall Q1 sales declined 12.5% in the U.S. "amid the nation's outbreak of coronavirus and multiple state stay-at-home orders." The company's decline, based mainly on the halt of sales and production in March, mirrors similar announcements from peers GM (GM) and FCA US (FCAU) yesterday.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Criteo (CRTO), which rose 18% after the company lowered its first quarter guidance and withdrew its fiscal 2020 guidance. Additionally, Citi analyst Nicholas Jones upgraded Criteo to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $14, down from $16, after resuming coverage of the name. Also higher was PVH Corp. (PVH), which gained 4% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Zoom Video (ZM), which is down 8% in reaction to two "primary items," namely a surge in security-related headlines and a reaction to RingCentral (RNG) launching its own video solution into the market. Also lower was Shopify (SHOP), which fell 10% after it suspended financial expectations for fiscal 2020 amid COVID-19 uncertainty.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 364.24, or 1.74%, to 21,307.75, the Nasdaq was up 107.29, or 1.46%, to 7,467.87, and the S&P 500 was up 45.74, or 1.85%, to 2,516.24.
