Stocks on the rise after Dow, S&P 500 had best month since November

US equity futures started rising in April after the S&P 500 closed its best month since November with a gain of 4.2%. The index hit an all-time intraday high on Wednesday but failed to close at a record high. (CNBC)

The Dow Jones, which closed at a record high on Monday, experienced its second consecutive modest decline on Wednesday. But the average of 30 stocks, like the S&P 500, had its best month since November, posting a 6.6% gain in March. For the first quarter, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 rose 7.8% and 5.8% respectively for their fourth consecutive positive quarter. (CNBC)

The Nasdaq broke a two-game losing streak with a 1.5% gain on Wednesday. The high-tech Nasdaq has been the underperformance recently as tech stocks are particularly sensitive to rising market interest rates as they depend on low-cost borrowing to invest in future growth. For the month of March, the Nasdaq gained only 0.4%. For the quarter, it gained 2.8%. (CNBC)

The government this morning reported 719,000 new unemployment benefit filings that were higher than expected last week. The previous week was revised down to 658,000 initial jobless claims, the lowest level in over a year. The Ministry of Labor is expected to release its monthly employment report on Friday despite the stock market closing on Good Friday.

* 10-year Treasury yield drops below 1.7% after data on jobless claims (CNBC)
* Oil gains ground ahead of OPEC + meeting on production policy (Reuters)

President Joe Biden is scheduled to hold his first Cabinet meeting on Thursday. The timing comes a week after Biden’s full Cabinet confirmation and a day after the president released his long-awaited infrastructure package, which would spend around $ 2 trillion over eight years. An increase in the US business tax rate to 28% would pay for the sprawling plan. (AP and CNBC)

* Business divided over whether to fight Biden’s corporate tax hike (CNBC)

Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) said Thursday their two-dose Covid vaccine was around 91% effective, citing updated test data, which included people vaccinated for up to six months. The vaccine was also 100% effective in trial participants in South Africa, where a new variant is dominant. However, the number of such South African participants was relatively small at 800. (Reuters)

Shares of Emerging BioSolutions (EBS), the company at the center of the problems that led Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to dispose of an unknown amount of its Covid vaccine, fell 7% in pre-market on Thursday. According to documents obtained by the Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, Emergent has received a series of citations from U.S. health officials for quality control concerns.

The FDA has cleared the Abbott Laboratories (ABT) Covid-19 rapid antigen test for over-the-counter sales and home use for people without current symptoms of Covid. The retail price is still undetermined, but a spokesperson for the company told Reuters the tests will be sold to retailers for less than $ 10 each. At the same time, the FDA also approved a home test for Covid-19 performed by the diagnostic company Quidel (QDEL).

Alphabet (GOOGL) Google employees will begin entering their offices in “limited” capacity in April, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. After September 1, if employees want to work remotely for more than 14 days per year, they will need to make a formal request. Google advised employees to get the Covid vaccine, but said it wasn’t mandatory.

* Frontier Airlines Raises $ 570 Million On IPO, Begins Business Today (CNBC)
* Compass, backed by SoftBank, raises $ 450 million in scaled-down IPO (Reuters)

Microsoft (MSFT) will supply the US military with more than 120,000 devices based on its HoloLens augmented reality headset. The deal, which could be worth up to nearly $ 22 billion over 10 years, comes a year and a half after Microsoft won a Pentagon cloud deal that could be worth up to $ 10 billion. (CNBC)

* Elon Musk has chosen to join the board of directors of Endeavor Group, owner of the UFC and Miss Universe (CNBC) pageant

Shares of Funko (FNKO) surged in pre-market trading on Thursday after the pop culture collectibles maker said it had acquired a controlling stake in TokenWave, placing it in the non-fungible NFT token market.

Exxon Mobil (XOM) released data in an SEC filing that indicates the possibility of the company’s first profit in five quarters. Raymond James analyst Justin Jenkins said the data showed earnings of $ 2.55 billion, or 60 cents a share, with Exxon benefiting from rising oil and gas prices.

Auto retailer CarMax (KMX) quarterly earnings of $ 1.27 per share, with revenue mostly on plan. CarMax also announced that it will acquire the remaining part of Edmunds that it does not already own, in a cash and stock transaction valuing the auto information provider at $ 404 million. CarMax shares slipped 3.5% on pre-market.

Micron Technology (MU) reported quarterly earnings of 98 cents per share, beating estimates. Turnover was slightly higher than Wall Street forecast. The computer chipmaker also released an optimistic forecast. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Micron is studying a deal for Kioxia that could value the Japanese chipmaker at around $ 30 billion. Micron shares jumped 4.5% pre-market.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) will invest $ 100 billion over the next three years to increase the manufacturing capacity of its factories to meet increased demand and a global shortage of chips. Taiwan Semi grew 2.1% in pre-release.

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio (NIO) said it delivered 7,257 vehicles in March, an increase of 373% from the same month last year. Nio jumped 5.8% in pre-market commerce.

The Sherwin-Williams (SHW) 3-for-1 stock split, announced on March 2, is effective as of today. This is the first time the paint company has split its stock since 1997. Sherwin-Williams has gained 1.2% on pre-market.

FuboTV (FUBO), a live streaming sports television platform, has announced a deal to broadcast all non-televised Chicago Cubs games nationwide this season. FuboTV shares jumped 4.8% in pre-release.