Investing.com – Wall Street showed little movement on Thursday, last drifting slightly higher, as testimony by former FBI director James Comey offered no new information for markets.
At 12:01PM ET (16:01GMT), the Dow Jones edged forward 16 points, or 0.07%, the S&P 500 advanced 3 points, or 0.11%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 36 points, or 0.03%.
Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee around his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump offered little reason for investors to adjust their stock portfolios.
In a nutshell, the former FBI director did not reveal any new information beyond what markets already new.
Comey reiterated that the FBI was not told by either Trump or any other official to stop investigations into Russia, while he also commented that it was not his place to determine if Trump’s request to stop the probe into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn should be considered obstruction of justice.
As another of Thursday’s risk events, with results for the U.K. general elections not scheduled for release until after the market close, the European Central Bank (ECB) earlier made no changes to monetary policy although the euro area monetary authority showed a slightly less dovish stance on the back of updated forecasts that included an upgrade of growth projections. The ECB removed wording suggesting that interest rates to go to even “lower levels”.
The largely expected move came ahead of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) own policy decision next week.
Markets placed the odds that the Fed will raise rates on June 14 at 90%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
The dollar, meanwhile, remained trading broadly higher against major rivals on Thursday despite the fact that weekly jobless claims fell less than expected.
In big moves on company news, Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) jumped more than 10%, leading advancers on the S&P 500, after the department store chain said it was studying a “going private” transaction.
On the opposite end of the index, Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) stumbled more than 9% after the retail clothing chain warned that the decline in comparable retail sales has increased during its fiscal second quarter.
Meanwhile, oil prices struggled to bounce back Thursday from one-month lows hit in the prior session when an unexpected surge in U.S. crude inventories and the resurgence of Nigerian production underlined concern over the global supply glut.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.20% to $45.81 by 12:03PM ET (16:03GMT), but Brent oil slipped 0.02% to $48.05.