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| Dow Jones Rises on Surprising Drop in Jobless Claims, Block Crashes 22% on Short Seller Report |
Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded by more than 300 points, erasing Wednesday's losses after a surprising decline in the first-time jobless claims of the Labor Department. It came as a relief to investors, and the five big tech companies, namely Advanced Micro Devices, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla rose in morning trade. However, Block (SQ) shares plunged by as much as 22% following a short seller's report accusing the company of over-stating user counts. Chewy, Darden Restaurants, General Mills, and KB Home were among the earnings movers on Thursday morning.
Align Technology, IBD SwingTrader stock Meta Platforms, and IBD Leaderboard Palo Alto Networks, along with Dow Jones stocks Nike and Salesforce, are among the top stocks to watch amid the ongoing stock market correction. In terms of the Dow Jones stocks, Nike is currently consolidating within a flat base with a 131.41 buy point, while Salesforce showed a strong fourth-quarter result and is above an 178.94 cup-with-handle entry after recent significant gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%, the S&P 500 gained 1.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rallied 1.7% in the morning session. The Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust rose 1.6%, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF moved up 1.1% early Thursday. Meanwhile, U.S. oil prices paused, with West Texas Intermediate futures trading narrowly lower but still above the $70 level. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked lower to 3.5%, and the dollar fell after the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. However, the 10-year continued lower, ticking down to 3.47%.
