Investing.com – U.S. stocks showed mixed trade near five-month highs on Thursday as bank earnings failed to further impress beyond Wednesday’s report from JP Morgan and a string of references to the Federal Reserve (Fed) gave market participants more speculation to chew on about the future path of rate hikes by the country’s central bank.
At 15:06GMT, or 11:06ET, the Dow Jones rose 17 points, or 0.10%, while the S&P 500 edged up 1 point, or 0.03%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite slipped 2 points, or 0.04%.
Both Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) moved lower after reporting their quarterly earnings.
Though BAC was in line and WFC beat consensus, shares in both banks moved lower after having pocketed strong gains on Wednesday, spurred by JP Morgan’s own report that drove the entire sector higher.
Economic data released on Thursday was of special reference for the Fed’s mandate with the U.S. labor market and price stability both in play.
Weekly initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to levels not seen since November 1973 in another sign that the labor market was firming despite tepid growth in the U.S. economy.
Annual inflation, both headline and core, eased in March pushing back the urgency for the Fed to take action and continue its path for tightening monetary policy.
The U.S. central bank has been signaling that it wants to see wage growth and corresponding increase in inflation in order to make a move.
In fact, concerns over the economy, and particularly the recent weak inflation and consumer spending data, were precisely what made Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart pull an about face and admit that he had changed his mind and would now oppose a rate hike at the next monetary policy meeting at the end of April.
The lack of any change at the next meeting had already been ruled out by markets, but a Reuters poll released on Thursday showed that economists too were reducing their bets for a rate hike even as far out as June.
The dollar seemed unconcerned about more dovish expectations for a rate hike and moved back towards two-and-a-half week highs.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.05% at 94.86, at 15:08GMT or 11:08AM ET.
Meanwhile, investors continued to eye volatile trade in oil on Thursday that moved from losses of 2% through a period of choppy trade to move slightly higher.
As a meeting of major oil producers on Sunday in Doha moved closer, most crude headlines seemed bearish.
Russian oil minister Alexander Novak admitted that any agreement about a production freeze will be loosely-framed with few detailed commitments.
The International Energy Agency warned Thursday that any deal is likely to have a limited impact on global supply and markets are unlikely to rebalance before 2017.
This while Bloomberg reported that Iran’s exports had surged 600,000 barrels per day in the first half of April.
Yet black gold appeared unfazed and U.S. crude futures rose 0.62% to $42.02 a barrel by 15:09GMT or 11:09AM ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.61% to $44.45.