US close: Dow Jones flat following post-election rally

Major indices delivered a mixed performance on Thursday as market participants digested former president Donald Trump's re-election victory and the latest interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 43,729.34, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.74% to 5,973.10 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.51% firmer at 19,269.46.

The Dow closed 0.59 points lower on Thursday after registering its biggest post-election rally for more than a century in the previous session.

Besides the Republican Party's White House victory, Thursday's primary focus was news that rate-setters had decided to ease monetary policy by a further 25 basis points, as expected. Nonetheless, they shied away from providing more forward guidance until the new US administration's policies were known and could be modelled. On this occasion, the Federal Open Market Committee's policy statement no longer stated that policymakers had gained more confidence that inflation was falling back towards 2% sustainably.

However, in his post-meeting press conference Fed boss Jerome Powell said the omission was not a signal. Instead, Powell said that to have reiterated that phrase would have constituted fresh forward guidance when it was more prudent not to provide it.

Elsewhere on the macro front, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated pace in the week ended 2 November, according to the Department of Labor. Initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 week-on-week to 221,000, in line with market expectations and continuing to point to a certain degree of resilience in the US labour market.

On another note, a preliminary reading of non-farm business sector labour productivity rose by 2.2% in Q3, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, following a downwardly revised 2.1% increase in Q2 and short of estimates of 2.3%.

Finally, US wholesale inventories fell by 0.2% month-on-month in September to $903.7bn, according to the Census Bureau, compared to a preliminary estimate of a 0.1% drop and following a 0.2% rise in August.

In the corporate space, Warner Brothers Discovery fell short of revenue estimates as a result of weakness in its studio unit, while Moderna posted a surprise profit on the back of solid Covid vaccine sales and the benefits of recent cost-cutting efforts, and doughnut maker Krispy Kreme dropped on the back of an earnings miss.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $26.23 4.71%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $399.44 2.85%
Boeing Co. (BA) $150.98 2.60%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $227.48 2.14%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $605.45 1.47%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $163.41 1.47%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $310.78 1.26%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $425.43 1.25%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $48.90 1.14%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $75.92 0.80%

Dow Jones - Fallers

JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $236.38 -4.32%
American Express Co. (AXP) $286.82 -2.83%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $582.17 -2.32%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $408.21 -2.08%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $40.57 -1.43%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $156.73 -0.73%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $252.28 -0.66%
3M Co. (MMM) $133.07 -0.63%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $156.77 -0.60%
Visa Inc. (V) $305.80 -0.52%

S&P 500 - Risers

Under Armour Inc. Class A (UAA) $11.13 27.20%
Under Armour, Inc. (UA) $9.94 23.33%
Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI) $8.38 18.03%
McKesson Corp. (MCK) $607.51 10.60%
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $179.17 7.53%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $97.90 6.77%
Ansys Inc. (ANSS) $355.58 6.58%
Ralph Lauren Corp (RL) $221.70 6.57%
Dxc Technology Company (DXC) $22.58 5.37%
Estee Lauder Co. Inc. (EL) $66.31 4.79%

S&P 500 - Fallers

DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $17.26 -28.02%
Apache Corp. (APA) $21.93 -11.32%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $15.46 -11.20%
CVS Health Corp (CVS) $57.07 -7.37%
Rockwell Automation Inc. (ROK) $277.09 -5.75%
Becton, Dickinson & Company (BDX) $227.11 -5.39%
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) $46.03 -4.72%
Zions Bancorporation (ZION) $57.55 -4.64%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $236.38 -4.32%
Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) $35.26 -4.29%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $179.17 7.53%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $97.90 6.77%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $41.23 6.62%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $26.23 4.71%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $674.15 3.97%
Synopsys Inc. (SNPS) $573.59 3.70%
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $194.09 3.50%
Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $591.70 3.44%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $79.21 3.16%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $296.91 2.90%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $17.26 -28.02%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $1,774.05 -16.21%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $0.48 -14.27%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $393.04 -3.67%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $35.56 -3.58%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $112.72 -2.84%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $13.62 -2.71%
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) $188.51 -2.24%
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $44.19 -2.10%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $32.82 -1.80%