US stocks rebound after sluggish start to Q2
Wall Street stocks climbed early on Thursday, rebounding after a sluggish start to the second quarter as US Treasury bond yields retreated. Analysts pointed to Wednesday's services sector survey that showed a drop in prices as a supporting factor, as well as comments the same day from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that signalled the US central bank was still open to interest rate cuts this year. About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones was up 0.4 percent to 39,272. The S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent to 5,246, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.8 percent to 16,413. "I think the real underlying issue with equities is simply that you add a huge amount of inflow ... and it was just due for a consolidation anyway," said LBBW's Karl Haeling. "It was a pretty modest correction and, it might be very possible that rather than getting a real correction, equities may just chop sideways for a couple of months." Among individual companies, Levi Straus surged 18.6 percent after reporting better than expected results. Chief Executive Michelle Gass described the company's direct-to-consumer efforts as on track. Ford gained 1.9 percent as it announced plans to ramp up investments in hybrid vehicles and pushed back production on some new larger electric vehicles to 2027 from 2025. Alaska Air Group jumped 3.8 percent as it projected a smaller than expected loss in the first quarter, and said it has received US$160 million in compensation from Boeing following an emergency landing on a January plane. Alaska expects "additional compensation" from Boeing beyond the first quarter, the company said. Boeing rose 0.6 percent. (AFP)