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Stocks rallied on Thursday, Treasuries dip, Oil down, Natural gas tumbles, Mortgage activity rebounds, Disney to cut 7000 jobs, Pepsi beats earnings, Shell’s board sued over climate strategy
Wall Street’s main indexes were on a rally early Thursday, as Dow futures soared 198 points or +0.58%, while S&P 500 futures were up 29 points or +0.70%, and NASDAQ futures climbed 133.75 points or +1.07%, and Russell 2000 futures notched up 13.5 points or +0.69%, Yahoo Finance reported.
In oil futures, WTI crude was down -0.65% and trading at $77.96, while Brent crude was down -0.53% and trading at $84.64 a barrel as of 8:29 AM ET.
The benchmark US 10-Year Treasury was down -0.052 to yield 3.584%, while the 2-Year Treasury dipped -0.033 to yield 4.421% as of 8:28 AM EST.
PepsiCo beat earning expectations as its price hikes fueled both quarterly earnings and overall revenue, bringing in $1.67 adjusted earnings-per-share vs. $1.65 expected and $28 billion in revenue over 26.84 billion expected, CNBC reported. Pepsi shares advanced nearly 2% on Thursday. However, the price hikes hurt consumer demand, with the company seeing volume fall by 2% across its food business worldwide.
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced on Wednesday that the Walt Disney Company will cut around 7000 jobs, roughly 3% of its workforce, as part of a “significant transformation” as the company seeks to lower costs by $5.5 billion, CBS reported. Disney shares gained more than 6% early Thursday.
Natural gas prices have tumbled 46 percent this year, and the effect is now rippling across the US shale patch and threatening to slow drilling as well as deal-making – something that was unthinkable six months ago when global demand soared. Analysts are reducing their outlook for gas prices this year in both earnings and production, Reuters reported.
Natural gas prices were beginning to tick upward on Thursday morning, up +1.21% at $2.425 of 8:36 AM ET
Activity in the housing market is showing a rebound in the past week, driven by falling mortgage rates, as the average 30-year fixed mortgage dipped to 6.18%. The purchase index notched up 3% from a week earlier, with high-priced homes leading the rally. The average loan size increased in the past week to $428,500 – the largest average since May 2022, FOXBusiness reported.
In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Shell’s Board of Directors has been sued over the company’s climate strategy. The lawsuit was filed by Environmental law firm ClientEarth, in its capacity as a shareholder, alleging 11 members of Shell’s board are mismanaging climate risk, breaching company law by failing to implement an energy transition strategy that aligns with the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, CNBC reported. A spokesperson for Shell said, “We do not accept ClientEarth’s allegations.”
