- Oil prices reversed course Thursday, with Brent crude futures losing 3% to
trade above $114 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate futures falling 2% to
trade above $104
- Wall Street is coming off a mixed session, with the Dow losing more than 200
points on Wednesday while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the session along the
flatline.
- Federal Reserve voting to hold interest rates steady in the range of 3.5% to
3.75%, as investors had largely expected, although the 8-4 vote marked the first
time four Fed officials have dissented since 1992.
- Thursday also marks the final trading day of April, a month that has seen a
surge for tech names. The S&P 500 is on pace for a 9.3% advance, while the
Nasdaq is heading for a 14.3% jump. Both indexes are on track for their best
month since 2020.
- The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food
and energy, accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.3% for the month, pushing the
12-month inflation rate to 3.2%
- Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a 2%
seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the first quarter, up from 0.5% in the
fourth quarter of 2025 but lower than the 2.2% estimate
- Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent tumbled 9% after hiking its full-year
capital expenditures guidance to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion,
raising concern over its AI spending. That forecast overshadowed a
better-than-expected Q1 report.
- South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index logged its strongest monthly gain, up
nearly 31%, since January 1998
- Microsoft — The “Magnificent Seven” inched higher. icrosoft reported an
earnings and revenue beat in its fiscal third quarter. Revenue from Azure and
other cloud services rose 40%.
- Amazon — Shares rose 4% after the company reported first-quarter results that
were above estimates.
