• Dow Jones fell 0.2% on Thursday, while S&P500 also posted losses of 0.5%. 
• Chevron and Salesforce contribute to the losses in DJIA. 
• Technically, the price remains supported by the 20-day SMA. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59 points, or 0.2%, in the afternoon. Among the major indices, the S&P 500 fell 0.5%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9% after rising more than 1% earlier.

On Thursday afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell after Chevron and Salesforce Inc. shares traded lower. Dow DJIA, -0.13%, traded 54 points or 0.2% lower than Chevron CVX, -3.47% and Salesforce Inc CRM, -2.40% contributed to the index’s intraday decline.

Shares of Chevron fell by $5.31 (3.1%), while Salesforce Inc. fell by $4.51 (2.4%), sending the Dow down around 65 points. Goldman Sachs GS contributed -0.82% to the decline, Home Depot HD contributed -1.05%, and Walt Disney DIS contributed -1.02%, respectively. In the benchmark index, any change of $1 results in a 6.59-point swing.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.95% on Thursday, up from a pandemic-era high of 2.94% earlier this week.

Higher interest rates have the markets scrambling to gauge their impact on earnings growth. In the meantime, S&P 500 investors are earning a 5.3% return on every dollar invested based on a multiple of 19 of next year’s projected earnings per share. The 10-year government bond yields are historically low and unattractive, with less than three percentage points higher.

Mark Haefele, chief investment officer for global asset management at UBS, said, “The US first-quarter reporting season has begun well.” He added, “However, given heightened uncertainties about monetary tightening and the war in Ukraine, we recommend a broadly neutral position on equities.”

An important moment for the market was that investors couldn’t have been more pessimistic than they were before the week. Historically, that means that buyers are returning to the market and propelling the stock higher on the sidelines. According to Evercore strategists, a recent survey showed that pessimism is at its lowest level in decades. In the next three months, this usually precedes a rise in the S&P 500.

Tesla’s shares rose 6% after Tesla earned $3.22 per share on sales of $18.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings per share in the range between 2.2 and 2.3 dollars which were predicted before this release was announced by Tesla’s management team.

UAL shares rose 12% after the company reported a $4.24 per share loss on revenue of $7.57 billion, worse than the expected loss of $4.22 -$, below expectations for an annual profit of 7.68 billion dollars. The forecast earnings are due to be announced at some point in 2018 and will show if UAL has been able to turn its fortunes around this year or not- it’s all very much up in the air for now as we’re still waiting. 

Alaska Air Group shares climbed 2% after the company reported a loss per share of $1.31, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.51 and exceeding revenue estimates at US$1.68 billion by US$8 million.

American Airlines shares increased by 6.1%, surpassing expectations after the company reported a loss of $2.32 per share, better than projected at $2.40 on revenue of 8/9 billion dollars, up from anticipated revenues of $883 million.

AT&T’s share price went up 3.3% after the company reported $0.77 per share earnings, beating estimates of $0.61 but missing revenue expectations at $38 billion, falling short by about 3%.

Dow Jones technical analysis:

The DJIA index posts a negative outlook. However, the price is still above the 20-period SMA. In addition, the daily volume is still bullish, which indicates that the downside could be corrective in nature.