Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Thursday as investors continued to digest the flow of quarterly earnings reports both the Dow and S&P 500 broke a two-day losing streak.
At 11:16AM ET (15:16GMT), the Dow Jones rose 90 points, or 0.40%, the S&P 500 gained 7 points, or 0.32%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 27 points, or 0.46%.
The Dow underwent an earnings tug of war Thursday as The Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) led decliners.
The insurer dropped after reporting an 11% fall in profit due to higher catastrophe losses, while the wireless carrier missed consensus due to a loss of monthly subscribers.
On the upside, American Express (NYSE:AXP) led the advancers on the blue-chip index after the credit card company published a smaller-than-expected drop in profit and gave an upbeat guidance for the year.
On the data front, weekly jobless claims climbed slightly more than expected, but continuing jobless claims beat estimates after falling to their lowest reading since April 2000.
Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region registered notably slower growth in April than the previous month, but still remained in a firm expansion.
In a lesser report, the Conference Board’s leading economic index showed growth of 0.4%, beating expectations for an increase half that size.
With regard to interest rates, Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan insisted Thursday that the median call for three hikes this year was “still a good baseline”.
Kaplan’s remarks coincided with a report out from Goldman Sachs that suggested that the recent decline in market expectations for policy tightening “may be underestimating three factors pointing towards continued steady hikes.”
Fed governor Jerome Powell made no comments on monetary policy, focusing on a suggestion to streamline bank stress tests.
Meanwhile, oil prices were lower in North American trading on Thursday, reversing overnight gains amid concern that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
Oil traded higher earlier on Thursday as leading Gulf oil producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait gave the clearest signal yet that OPEC plans to extend into the second half of the year a deal with non-OPEC producers to curb oil supplies.
Consensus is growing among oil producers that their supply restraint agreement should be extended after its initial six-month term, but there is as yet no agreement, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday.
U.S. crude futures lost 0.37% to $50.66 by 11:18AM ET (15:18GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.32% to $52.76.