Dow jumps 200 points, S&P 500 heads for best close in nearly 2 months: Live updates

Stocks closed higher Thursday, with the S&P 500 notching its highest close since February.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.33% to 4146.22. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.99% to 12,166.27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 383.19 points, or 1.14%, to 34,029.69.

— Sarah Min

Goldman Sachs said Warner Bros. Discovery remains a top pick in media after the conglomerate unveiled new information into its streaming service that’s launching next month.

The Wall Street firm said that “Max,” the new streaming platform from Warner Bros. Discovery launching May 23, is “well positioned” compared to other streaming services because of its extensive content library, as well as its improved user experience. “Max” is expected to merge content from HBO Max and Discovery+.

“It also represents the first time that WBD has come to market with a significant offer that leverages the combined content, technology and distribution resources of legacy Discovery and WarnerMedia,” Brett Feldman said in a Thursday note.

“As such, we believe that a successful roll-out of max during 2023-2024 could be an incremental positive catalyst for the stock, beyond investors’ outlook for material cost synergies.”

What’s more, the analyst said the risk/reward for Warner Bros. Discovery is the most attractive among its peer group. The firm’s 12-month price target of $19 represents roughly 35% upside potential from Wednesday’s closing price.

— Sarah Min

Stocks hit their highs of the session heading into the final hour of trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 400 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 climbed nearly 1.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2%.

— Sarah Min

UBS upgraded shares of Ingredion to buy, saying that an “inflection [is] on the horizon” for the company.

“We believe Ingredion is in the early innings of a beat and raise cycle as it stands to benefit from several strategic initiatives and secular tailwinds,” analyst Cody Ross wrote in a Wednesday note. “We see a credible path for INGR to expand GM by 100+ bps over the next three years and deliver more consistent GP dollar growth over the [long-term].”

The firm’s price target of $121 implies shares having more than 13% upside over the next 12 months. Shares have gained 8.6% year to date.

“As the company begins to deliver more consistent results, we expect its multiple to expand in kind,” said Ross.

Ingredion stock

Solar stocks SolarEdge Technologies and Enphase Energy led gains in the S&P 500 on Thursday, jumping more than 7% each.

On Thursday, HSBC analyst Daniel Yang initiated coverage of both stocks with buy ratings. Yang said SolarEdge, which is the world’s largest provider of module level power electronics (MLPE), is finding new growth opportunities as it expands into the energy storage system battery market.

The analyst was also bullish on Enphase, saying the leading microinverter provider is expanding its European footprint, which “will be the next growth market for Enphase.”

SolarEdge shares 1-day

The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) is on pace to post its best session in five months.

The ETF has gained more than 4.5% in Thursday’s session. That’s the highest it’s gained in a day since Nov. 10, when the fund advanced 7.7%.

Sana Biotechnology led the index up with a 21% jump on the back of pre-clinical data. Relay Therapeutics, another top performer, popped 14% on the back of Raymond James initiating coverage of the stock as overweight. Multiple stocks in the ETF are slated to participate in the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting starting Friday.

Thursday’s rally puts the index up 3.7% for the week. If that performance holds through Friday’s close, it would be the best week for the index since Jan. 13, when it gained 5.7%.

Despite the recent performance, the ETF is still down 4% compared with the start of the year.

SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

It’s unlikely that the S&P 500 has reached its bear low yet, according to data compiled by Canaccord Genuity. The firm noted that, going back to 1957, the S&P 500 “has never made ‘the’ low before a recession even began.”

Recession fears have plagued investors’ minds for most of this year. However, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the arbiter on U.S. recessions, has yet to declare one.

“Our game plan remains the same: stay lighter in exposure and slightly defensive in sector allocation, and stand ready to take advantage of any weakness if/when bad news becomes bad news, and the market moves back to/below the October low,” Canaccord said.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

William Blair initiated coverage on Costco Wholesale with an outperform rating on shares.

“We expect the strong value proposition, engaged membership, efficient operations, and long runway for growth support further market share expansion,” analyst Phillip Blee wrote in a Tuesday note to clients.

Blee noted that although Costco is trading at a slight premium compared to other high-growth retailers and value-based peers, the stock is still a promising name for investors.

“We believe the premium is warranted given the stability of the membership base and increasing appeal of Costco’s value proposition,” Blee said.

He continued, “We expect the primary driver of the stock will be sustainable earnings growth in the low-double-digit range with potential for additional upside from further share repurchases, membership fee increases, and international maturation.”

— Hakyung Kim

Progressive shares 1-day

Check out some of the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Apple — The tech giant climbed more than 2% Thursday. A report a day earlier said the company is doing away with plans to more heavily include haptic touch technology from supplier Cirrus. Reports had been circling ahead of the launch of the iPhone 15 later this year that the model would include a physical side button that used Cirrus’ solid state technology.

Bed Bath & Beyond — The meme stock favorite dropped 5.9%. Earlier this week, the company sold about 100 million shares to bookrunner B. Riley Securities.

Netflix — Shares of the streaming platform rose 4.5%, following other major tech-related names higher. However, Goldman Sachs reiterated its sell rating on the stock. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo said it was bullish on the streaming giant, saying paid account sharing in the U.S. could help lift its profit and loss statement.

Read the full list here.

Morgan Stanley upgraded World Wrestling Entertainment to overweight from equal weight on Thursday, citing the pending merger between WWE and UFC.

While the new venture, controlled by Endeavor Group, has yet to be named, it will be publicly traded under the ticker symbol TKO.

“We see TKO, which investors can gain exposure to through WWE shares today, as offering an attractive risk/reward given the secular tailwinds behind sports and entertainment media rights revenues, live content, and the defensive characteristics of largely contracted revenue growth,” analyst Benjamin Swinburne wrote in a note Thursday.

Shares of WWE, up 50% year to date, hit a 52-week high on Thursday.

World Wrestling Entertainment year-to-date performance

Wells Fargo analyst Jared Shaw said in a note to clients that there are several regional banks that appear to have long-term trends of sticky deposits.

“Given the dislocation among banks, the stickiness of deposits are being tested more now than in the last few years. While small retail deposits are generally considered the most sticky and less prone to being impacted by higher rates, the strength of customer relationships is also a key factor, especially for commercially-focused banks,” Shaw wrote.

The companies with strong long-term trends include Webster Financial, First Interstate BancSystem and Columbia Banking System, according to Wells Fargo. These banks have “generally large weightings toward retail deposits,” Shaw wrote, and Webster in particular has seen its percentage of retail deposits grow since 2019.

On the other hand, Shaw listed PacWest and BankUnited, which rely on commercial deposits, and Bank Ozk, which has heavier exposure to CDs, as banks whose business mix “could indicate less sticky deposits.”

— Jesse Pound, Michael Bloom

Netflix shares rose nearly 4% on Thursday after Wells Fargo said it was bullish on the streaming giant ahead of its earnings report.

Analyst Steven Cahall said the focus will be less about earnings and more on commentary about the rollout of its paid sharing program in the U.S. Earlier this year, the company outlined how the plan would work in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. Netflix has been testing the program internationally before implementing a fee in the U.S.

“We’re bullish on NFLX into 1Q23 results as we think management will be optimistic on the lift to the P&L from paid sharing implementation,” Cahall said, using an acronym to refer to the company’s profit and loss statement. “This should push estimates higher, and supports NFLX’s continued evolution.”

Netflix’s stock has gained almost 17% this year and ended Wednesday’s session at $331.03 per share. But even with the 2023 rally, the stock is still trading just over 45% below where it ended 2021.

Netflix

WW this week

Retail traders moved out of individual stocks last week, according to JPMorgan.

Strategist Peng Cheng said in a note to clients that retail traders net sold $360 million of individual equities last week, with several large tech stocks seeing significant selling.

However, there were two financial stocks that saw net buying from retail investors last week.

On the ETF side, equity and fixed income ETFs both saw inflows, according to JPMorgan.

— Jesse Pound

Tech stocks outperformed, with the communication services and information technology sectors the leading sectors in the S&P 500. They were last up 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively.

Megacap tech stocks advanced, with shares of Google-parent Alphabet, Apple and Meta each up more than 2%. Netflix shares rose 3.5%.

— Sarah Min

Most eyes are on big banks’ earnings Friday and their ability to stir up volatility, but one unassuming stock could move prices a lot more.

UnitedHealth has by far the biggest weighting in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The 126-year-old blue-chip benchmark is price-weighted, meaning stocks with higher share prices are given the most weight.

The insurer reports earnings Friday before the bell, along with JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. UnitedHealth has contributed almost 319 points to the Dow’s April point gain of 410.64, responsible for almost 78% of the average’s entire move. The stock is on a tear this month, rallying more than 10%.

— Yun Li

Goldman Sachs still disagrees with the rest of Wall Street on the odds of a recession.

The firm thinks the likelihood of a full-blown slowdown sits at just 35%, well below the 65% consensus surveyed by Bloomberg. Although Goldman increased their outlook from 25% to 35% after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the firm thinks the risk of further turmoil in the banking sector has abated.

“The risk of an outright banking crisis has declined sharply, as no additional institutions have failed since SVB weekend, Fed lending to banks has come off the highs, and deposit flight has subsided,” Goldman Sachs chief economist and head of global investment research Jan Hatzius wrote on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hatzius added that while the March inflation report showed price pressures are slowing only gradually, the central bank may not need to force the U.S. economy into a recession and pointed toward “encouraging” labor market data, which has kept the unemployment rate at 3.5% for a full 12 months while payrolls continue to grow.

— Brian Evans

The major averages rose to start Thursday’s session. The Dow advanced 40 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7%.

— Fred Imbert

Excluding food and energy, the core wholesale prices reading showed a 0.1% decline month over month in March, or its lowest level since April 2020 when the core PPI showed a fall of 0.3%.

— Gina Francolla, Sarah Min

The price of ether climbed above $2,000 Thursday for the first time in eight months, after investors put uncertainty surrounding the long-awaited Shanghai upgrade behind them.

Ether advanced more than 5% to $2,007.55, according to Coin Metrics. Bitcoin gained more than 1% to reclaim the $30,000, after briefly falling below it on Wednesday.

After a two-year lock up period, Ethereum staking withdrawals were enabled by the Shanghai upgrade around 6:30 p.m. ET on April 12.

For more on how investors are reacting to Ethereum’s latest tech transition check out our full story here. Head to CNBC Pro for a deeper look at what Shanghai means for investors.

— Tanaya Macheel

Harley-Davidson shares are down nearly 4% in premarket trading after UBS predicted first-quarter retail sales at U.S. dealers could tumble as much as 20% from a year ago.

While that’s bad news on its own — and not a great signal about the overall retail environment — the real story could be even worse. Analyst Robin Farley is afraid that Harley’s core customer is aging out of the category and the company isn’t doing enough to pull in new buyers. Farley noted a number of entry-level bikes have been nixed. Even with a number of big incentives and rebates, the lack of a less expensive option makes it harder for dealers to appeal to price-sensitive shoppers.

Harley-Davidson shares have pulled back from a 52-week high of $51.77 in early February.

Here are some of the names making the biggest moves in premarket trading:

• Merck — The pharma giant rose about 1% after being upgraded to by Citi to buy from neutral, saying its drug pipeline is underappreciated. The Wall Street firm boosted the stock’s price target to $130, which implies 14% upside from Wednesday’s closing price.
• Steven Madden — Shares rallied 5.5% following an upgrade by Citi to buy from neutral by Citi. The firm said it expects Steve Madden to begin seeing stronger wholesale reorders in the second quarter.
• Harley-Davidson — The motorcycle maker fell nearly 4% in the premarket after UBS said retail declines for the motorcycle maker in the first quarter may be worse than expected.

To read more about companies making moves in the premarket, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Initial claims came in at 239,000 for the week ending April 8, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones were forecasting initial claims to come in at 235,000.

That’s a rise from 228,000 claims in the previous week.

— Sarah Min

The producer price index, a gauge of wholesale inflation, fell 0.5% month over month in March — another sign that U.S. inflation may be cooling. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected PPI to remain unchanged from February.

Core PPI, which strips out food and energy prices, fell 0.1%, while economists had forecast a 0.2% increase.

— Fred Imbert

Merck shares rose 1.3% during Thursday’s premarket trading after Citi upgraded the stock to buy from neutral.

The bank said Merck’s newly acquired portfolio of ADC, or antibody drug conjugate, from China-based Kelun-Biotech helps the company in “future-proofing” its oncology and hematology pipeline. The exclusive license and collaboration agreement for ADC development helps Merck in developing more cancer treatment drugs, which Citi thinks it could rival its competitors’ offerings.

“Merck’s TROP2 ADC is a materially under-appreciated competitor to AZN/DS dato-DXd,” Baum wrote in a Thursday note, referring to AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s lung cancer drug currently in development.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about his upgrade here.

— Hakyung Kim

Shares of Delta Air Lines soared nearly 5% in the premarket after the airline forecast revenue growth and profits for the second quarter that topped analysts estimates.

Delta projected “record advance bookings for the summer” and said it expects sales in the current quarter to increase by 15% to 17% over last year. It is forecasting adjusted earnings per share of between $2 to $2.25. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting revenue growth of 14.6% and adjusted EPS of $1.66.

However, Delta reported earnings and revenue that missed Wall Street’s estimates for the first quarter.

Delta Air Lines

Ether rose more than 4% to $1,992.46, according to Coin Metrics, as traders moved past surrounding uncertainty over the long-awaited Shanghai update.

After a two-year lock up period, Ethereum staking withdrawals were enabled by the Shanghai upgrade around 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Investors were optimistic but cautious in the weeks leading up to the upgrade. While many agree the upgrade is good for Ethereum in the long-term – because it allows more liquidity to ether investors and stakers which could also be a catalyst for a change in institutional participation – there was more uncertainty around how it would affect the price.

— Tanaya Macheel

Deutsche Bank analyst Corinne Blanchard downgraded First Solar to hold from buy, noting the stock is expensive after rallying 38% year to date.

“We remain positive on the fundamentals of the company, given a strong backlog through the coming years, with improved [average selling price]. Yet, we believe that the current stock price … represents an expensive entry point for investors; we would see a valuation range of below $200/sh as more attractive,” the analyst wrote.

First Solar shares dipped more than 1% in the premarket.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Hakyung Kim

European stock markets opened mixed Thursday as investors digest key inflation data out of the U.S. released Wednesday.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was tentatively higher with a 0.2% uptick, and sectors were mostly in positive territory. Household goods led gains with a 1.8% jump, while oil and gas stocks made the biggest drop with a 0.4% downturn.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

European stock markets are expected to open mixed, with the FTSE 100 looking to drop 8 points to 7,808.9 and Germany’s DAX losing 11 points to 15,688.7, according to IG data. France’s CAC index will buck the trend and gain 39 points to sit at 7,435.2.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Traders are digesting the latest reading of the consumer price index, but another inflation reading will be due Thursday morning: the producer price index.

The PPI, which is a measurement of wholesale prices, is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate that March’s reading will be flat, compared to a decline of 0.1% in February. When excluding volatile food and energy prices, economists predict that PPI will rise by 0.2%, compared to an unchanged reading in February.

–Darla Mercado

Check out the companies making headlines in after hours trading.

Tesla — Shares of the electric vehicle giant slid 0.3% in extended trading hours, with the company reporting second quarter earnings a week from Wednesday. Investors will turn their attention toward any forward guidance on whether to expect more price cuts from the EV giant this year, after slashing prices on both the Model 3 and Model Y just days earlier.

Broadcom — The chipmaker gained 0.3% after trading lower during regular market hours. Broadcom stock pulled back earlier Wednesday after the European Commission raises competition concerns over the company’s planned purchase of cloud computing firm VMware.

Qualcomm — Peer semiconductor giant Qualcomm added 0.5% after the closing bell, just a day after closing 1.05% higher and outpacing the benchmark S&P 500. The broader field of semiconductor stocks have fared well ahead of the forthcoming earnings season despite Wall Street predicting a bottom in the sector.

Walmart — The retail behemoth pulled back 0.23% after hours, a day after the company announced plans to close four warehouses in Chicago as well as initiate a bond sale. Elsewhere, Walmart is planning on making automation a larger part of its warehouse operations to manage inventory.

— Brian Evans

Investors Intelligence, which tracks bullish and bearish opinion among financial newsletter editors as a contrarian indicator, said in its latest survey this week that “[s]entiment still allows for higher markets.”

The percentage of bullish advisors was little changed, at 48.7% against 48.6% last week, and the danger zone isn’t breached until the number reaches 55% or more, II said. What’s more, bulls topped bears for a 21st straight week, “another positive sign.”

Bearish advisors contracted to 24.3% from 25% last week, while those calling for a correction widened to 27% from 26.4%. The so-called “bull-bear spread” rose to 24.4% from 23.6% a week ago.

Investor sentiment readings are regarded as contrarian indicators because the more bullish that people say they are, the presumption goes, the less money there is on the sidelines available to buy stock. Conversely, the more bearish investors say they are, the more likely they are to have already sold.

— Scott Schnipper