Thursday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Close Mixed In Volatile Trading As Crude Oil Futures Surge

U.S. stocks finished narrowly mixed on Thursday in volatile trading as investors took some comfort from rising oil prices and mulled over hopes for a drug treatment for COVID-19.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 39.44 points to 23,515.26, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.51 points to 2,797.80 and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 0.63 points to 8,494.75.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 5.06 billion shares with 1,933 issues advancing, 21 setting new highs, and 1,029 declining, with 18 setting new lows.

Active movers were led by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INO), Snap Inc. (SNAP) and General Electric Co. (GE).

The Financial Times, citing documents published by the World Health Organization, reported that Gilead Sciences’ (GILD) drug remdesivir did not relieve patients’ condition nor reduce the presence of the coronavirus pathogen in their bloodstream.

Gilead responded: “Because this study was terminated early due to low enrollment, it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions. As such, the study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease.”

“Any sort of treatment is key for people to getting people back out into the world,” said Kim Forrest, founder of Bokeh Capital. “When the results were announced of the trial last week, you could see the market react and it was a sigh of relief that, if I get this, I may not die."

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said some 4.4 million Americans filed for jobless claims last week, bringing to 26.4 million the total over the past five weeks. The total number of job losses now surpasses the number of jobs that were created since the Great Recession. The state of Florida alone saw filings double from the previous week to almost 325,000.

“The decline in initial jobless claims… is encouraging, but the damage has already been done,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard. “Easing of lockdowns may have pulled some people currently on temporary layoff back into paid employment. If so, then April’s unemployment rate could prove to be the pandemic peak.”

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton tweeted: “Hard for employers to call back workers in most social of industries and succeed for any length of time given the ongoing contagion of the virus and need for social distancing.”

Analysts worry that even after the pandemic passes, companies may be slow to hire unless demand ticks up.

“The duration is really the key, to see how quickly we can put those on temporary layoff or furlough back on the payrolls,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects most of the U.S. economy to restart by the end of August.

The House is set to pass a $484 billion financial aid package for small businesses and hospitals.

Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, warned the coronavirus pandemic will hurt the U.S. economy worse than the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

But Achuthan added the recovery should be fairly quick.

“This recession could end up being among the shortest on record,” he said. “Just a partial re-opening of the economy would lift activity off the extreme lows.”

Overnight in Asia, markets were mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.19%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.35% and Japan’s Nikkei-225 gained 1.52%.

In Europe markets finished higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 0.97%, France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.89% and Germany’s DAX rose 0.95%.

Crude oil futures surged 23.51% at $17.02 per barrel, Brent crude gained 1.92% at $21.74. Gold futures edged up 0.67%.

The euro edged down 0.43% at $1.0777 while the pound sterling rose 0.13% at $1.2351.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped 0.97% to 0.613% while yield on the 30-year Treasury dropped 1.31% to 1.204%.