Stocks opened mixed on the first trading day of February after completing their best January in years. The Nasdaq was under pressure from the open as Amazon (AMZN) shares slid following the e-commerce giant's earnings report. The Dow and S&P were buoyed by the better than expected monthly jobs and the ISM manufacturing data, which were both above expectations. By noon, all three of the major averages were in positive territory, but they went into drift mode for the remainder of the day. As the news flow slowed and the volume dried up heading into the weekend, the averages closed little changed from their opening prices.
ECONOMIC EVENTS:
In the U.S.:
In White House news, White House National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow told Bloomberg that President Trump is optimistic about the prospect of a trade agreement with China after the "good viibe" of trade talks this week.
COMPANY NEWS: Amazon shares fell 5.4% after it reported what was called a "solid but noisy" quarter, with better than expected sales and profits during the holiday season but a lower than expected revenue outlook for the first three months of 2019.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) each reported better than expected earnings for the fourth quarter, sending their shares 3.6% and 3.1% higher, respectively.
Shares of Merck (MRK) rose 2.7% after it reported Q4 earnings and revenue that were each a bit better than expected and gave guidance for the new fiscal year that was fairly close to the consensus forecast.
Meanwhile, car makers were in focus amid reports about their car sales for the month of January. According to Bloomberg, Ford's (F) U.S. sales rose about 7% while General Motors' (GM) U.S. sales fell about 7% in the month. InsideEVs reported that Tesla (TSLA) delivered 6,500 Model 3s in the U.S. in January, while Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) reported that U.S. sales for the month were up 2%.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Aphria (APHA), which rose 10.45% after it introduced its first cannabis strains produced in Europe. Also higher were Symantec (SYMC) and Yum China (YUMC), which gained a respective 9% and 7.8% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Vedanta (VEDL), which fell 17.5% after Goldman Sachs analyst Indrajit Agarwal downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy. Also lower was Sony (SNE), which declined 7.9% in New York after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 64.22, or 0.26%, to 25,063.89, the Nasdaq lost 17.87, or 0.25%, to 7,263.87, and the S&P 500 advanced 6c, or 0.002%, to 2,704.16.
Amazon.com
-96.12 (-5.59%)
Exxon Mobil
+2.66 (+3.63%)
Chevron
+3.31 (+2.89%)
Merck
+2.16 (+2.90%)
Ford
-0.11 (-1.25%)
General Motors
-0.24 (-0.61%)
Tesla
+4.68 (+1.53%)
Ticker changed to STLA
+0.01 (+0.06%)
APHA
+
SYMC
+
Yum China
+2.8 (+7.67%)
Vedanta
-1.95 (-17.44%)
Symbol now SONY
-4.01 (-8.00%)