By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened lower on Thursday, unimpressed by a broadly positive set of corporate results that pointed to a gradual improvement in the economic outlook.
The market also shrugged off another record low in initial jobless claims last week, which fell to 547,000, their lowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By 9:45 am ET (1345 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 138 points, or 0.4%, at 33,999 points. The S&P 500was down in 0.3% and the NASDAQ Composite was down by a similar amount.
The big stand out from the broadly negative trend was AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) stock, which rose 5.1% to a four-month high after reporting a surprisingly large gain in mobile subscribers in the first quarter. The numbers were also bolstered by a 9.8% rise in revenue at its key WarnerMedia unit.
Equifax Inc (NYSE:EFX) stock was another to book the trend, rising 16% after the company reported a better than expected start to 2021 and raised its guidance for the rest of the year.
Sentiment was also affected by a second straight monthly drop in existing home sales, due largely to a lack of supply.
Two of the U.S. biggest airlines had mixed fortunes after reporting their quarterly results: Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) stock rose 1.7% after the company forecast a pick up in leisure travel from June; however, American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) stock fell 0.3% on concerns that the company’s cash flow isn’t improving quickly enough to cover its debt servicing costs.
Elsewhere, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) stock failed to advance despite the burrito chain reporting a sharp rise in revenue and profit as its restaurants started to reopen.
There was also a raft of generally stronger than expected updates from European companies overnight, which led to notable gains in their ADRs.
Nestle SA (SIX:NESN) ADR (OTC:NSRGY) rose 2.6% after reporting a rise in organic sales that was double what analysts had forecast. Software company SAP SE ADR (NYSE:SAP) Rose 1.5%, after it reported a blowout quarter for subscriptions to its cloud-based solutions, even though revenue for its Concur service remained well below trend.
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