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US benchmarks make gains Thursday as S&P 500 notches longest winning streak of 2022

Last updated: 16:13 07 Jul 2022 EDT, First published: 06:30 07 Jul 2022 EDT

Employees in a busy office

4:13pm: GameStop pops on approved stock split

The Dow ended Thursday up 347 points, 1.1%, at 31,385, the Nasdaq Composite added 259 points, 2.3%, to 11,621 and the S&P 500 improved 58 points, 1.5%, to 3,903.

It was the fourth consecutive positive day for the S&P 500, the benchmark's longest winning streak of 2022 thus far.

“There’s not necessarily much conviction in this move, but it is nice to see that, in the absence of new negative news, that markets are bouncing off of short-term oversold levels,” said Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones, as reported by CNBC.

Meanwhile, GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) stock surged nearly 15% to $134.93 after the video game retailer turned meme stock announced that a 4-to-1 stock split was approved by its board of directors. 

12.05pm: All eyes on jobs data

US stocks continued to rise at noon as investors weighed up higher-than-expected initial weekly jobless claims ahead of the release of key monthly job figures tomorrow.   

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 236 points at 31,274 points, while the S&P 500 was up 40 points at 3,885 points and the Nasdaq Composite had added 213 points at 11,575 points.

Sea transportation services company United Maritime Corp had soared a whopping 135% at noon after its debut on the Nasdaq on Wednesday as the company completed its spinoff from Seanergy Maritime (NASDAQ:SHIP) Holdings Corp.

Bed Bath and Beyond Inc’s stock also continued to rise, up about 27% at midday, after the home retailer’s interim CEO Sue Gove showed her confidence in the brand by upping her shares in the company by 90%.  

IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said the global outlook for indices seemed brighter in the wake of yesterday’s Fed minutes, if only because everyone seemed to be glad to get the issue out of the way for a while.

“The recent fall in commodity prices might provide some temporary relief on inflation, and perhaps earnings season will surprise on the upside when it kicks off next week,” Beauchamp said.

11.40am: Proactive North America headlines:

Nickel North Exploration is growing its Hawk Ridge nickel resource into an exciting new project in Quebec

Equity Metals is exploring the multi-million-ounce potential of the Silver Queen gold-silver project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle

Lobe Sciences updates investors on its regulatory and clinical development plans for its novel synthetic psilocin analogues L-130 and L-131

Globex Mining Enterprises receives cash payments of over $3M related to the sale of its properties and royalty interests

SPYR (OTCQB:SPYR) and Polte Corporation forge collaboration to enhance two GeoTraq models

Southern Energy closes US$31M financing; secures premium to NYMEX natural gas pricing contract

Clean Seed Capital updates on recent activity, including introduction of the Mini-MAX in Indi

Thunderbird Entertainment reveals Great Pacific Media's fall slate of unscripted programming

Fobi AI (TSX-V:FOBI, OTCQB:FOBIF) says leading Caribbean digital proof of insurance provider Minubia has chosen Passcreator by Fobi to streamline and expand its services

Murchison Minerals kicks off summer exploration program at Haut-Plateau de la Manicouagan nickel-copper-cobalt project in Quebec

Empower Clinics says COVID-19 tests exceeded 4,500 at its Vancouver clinics in June

Great Atlantic Resources begins exploration program at the past-producing Keymet project in New Brunswick

Goldshore Resources executes cash and stock option agreement covering White Metal Resource mining claims

Aben Resources (TSX-V:ABN, OTCQB:ABNAF) starts fieldwork at its Slocan graphite project in British Columbia to zero in on potential drill sites

BMEX Gold reviews Dunlop Bay ground electro magnetic survey results and kicks off field campaign

Fobi AI (TSX-V:FOBI, OTCQB:FOBIF) says leading Caribbean digital proof of insurance provider Minubia has chosen Passcreator by Fobi to streamline and expand its services

C3 Metals expands land holdings around highly prospective Jasperoide project in Peru

Hawkmoon Resources kicks off trenching at its Wilson property in Quebec

ACME Lithium kicks off summer exploration at its two southeastern Manitoba projects

Global Energy Metals Corp (TSX-V:GEMC) updates on Millennium cobalt-copper-gold project in Queensland, Australia

BioSig Technologies says Kansas City Heart Institute signs purchase agreement for its PURE EP System

Cabral Gold welcomes latest drilling at Central deposit at Cuiú Cuiú project; results suggest presence of more high-grade material than thought

BioHarvest Sciences wins its largest ever VINIA purchase order from Batory Foods

Algernon Pharmaceuticals selects Centre for Human Drug Research to complete work on IVF for phase 1 DMT stroke study

TraceSafe Technologies congratulates partner Boustead Projects for winning Singapore’s prestigious workplace safety and health award

Golden Minerals discovers multiple new veins at Yoquivo gold-silver project in Mexico

Bloom Health Partners closes initial tranche of private placement raising $1.03M in gross proceeds

Equity Metals is exploring the multi-million-ounce potential of the Silver Queen gold-silver project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle

Nickel North Exploration is growing its Hawk Ridge nickel resource into an exciting new project in Quebec

PowerTap Hydrogen Capital welcomes William O’Banion to advisory board

9.35am: Initial jobless claims edge higher

US stocks opened higher as traders digested the minutes from the Fed’s latest rate-setting meeting released yesterday afternoon amid the release of fresh jobs data.  

Just after the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 210 points at 31,247 points.

The S&P 500 had gained 30 points at 3,875 points and the Nasdaq Composite was up 105 points at 11,467 points.  

In meme stock news, shares of GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) were up about 10% at the open after the company announced late Wednesday a four-for-one stock split in the form of a dividend.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc had also jumped about 11% following the news the home retail company’s interim CEO Sue Gove purchased $230,500 worth of stock.

Meanwhile, new data from the Department of Labor shows initial US jobless claims for the week ended July 2 had edged higher to 235,000 from 231,000, above the market expectation of 230,000.

Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson said the trend in claims had been flat at around 230,000 lately, despite widespread reports of layoffs, especially in the tech sector.

“Small businesses continue to report difficulty in finding all the people they want, so the bar for layoffs presumably is still quite high, especially in the leisure and travel sectors, where demand is very strong,” he said. “That said, we think it likely that claims will rise gradually over the second half of the year, given slower growth in final domestic demand.”

He noted that he expected some noise over the next few weeks because the seasonal adjustments struggle with the annual automakers’ retooling shutdowns. “When the dust settles, in August, we think claims will be a bit higher than the recent trend,” Shepherdson said.

6:30am: More gains in volatile trade

US stocks are expected to open higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes, released yesterday, revealed the US central bank's resolve to rein in inflation.

Investors are also looking to Friday’s, always crucial, US non-farm payrolls (NFP) data for June to see how the labor market is holding up.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading 0.3% higher pre-market, while those for the broader S&P 500 index were up 0.3% and futures for the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 were ahead 0.4%.

“US and European futures are set to rise once again as investors are ready to pick up the momentum when they left off yesterday. Traders are also digesting the message from the FOMC Minutes, which confirmed the Fed's further support to control inflation,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at avatrade.com.

Still, he encouraged caution, “as there are too many moving parts and a large number of unknown factors.”

Fears that the world’s biggest economy will slip into a recession are very real amid elevated levels of inflation and rising interest rates. Price pressures look like they have yet to peak. Interest rates too look like they will have to rise much higher.

“The FOMC minutes made it clear to investors and traders that the Fed is fully committed to bringing inflation lower under any conditions … and investors should not think that the Fed will be done by increasing the interest rate two more times,” added Aslam.

With the cost-of-living crisis in the US at its worst since 1981, the pace of the interest rate isn't likely to slow down although the Fed will continue to keep a close on the economic data, he added.

That brings added focus to Friday’s NFP data. “The latest US NFP number is due tomorrow, and despite the fact that the Fed has said that they want to increase the interest rate by 50 to 75 basis points, a weak number could easily shift the expectations among investors and traders,” said Aslam.

In energy markets, WTI crude oil futures were up 0.9% at $99.44 a barrel while Brent crude futures were 0.8 % higher at $101.48. Both benchmark prices were slightly higher after recent falls on fears that global demand for oil may be starting to falter.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com

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