2025-05-01 23:18

Lilly tumbles after CVS drops Zepbound McDonald's slips after surprise drop in Q1 sales Weekly jobless claims higher than forecast Indexes up: Dow 0.21%, S&P 500 0.63% NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on Thursday, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their eighth straight session of gains after strong results from megacaps Microsoft and Meta eased concerns about artificial intelligence spending. Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab surged 7.6% and closed at its highest level since late January, driven by an upbeat quarterly growth forecast for its cloud-computing business Azure. The gains briefly pushed Microsoft above Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab to become the world's most valuable company. Sign up here. Meta Platforms (META.O) , opens new tab gained 4.2% and closed at its highest since April 9 after posting higher-than-expected revenue on the back of a strong advertising performance. The results helped allay fears the massive spending on AI in recent years would not be rewarded, and eased concerns that President Donald Trump's tariffs could dent economic growth. "It's nice that the day is being carried by earnings rather than just talking about tariffs for a second, so it's a little refreshing in that regard that we're talking about economic data and earnings," said Lamar Villere, Portfolio Manager with Villere & Co in New Orleans. "Certainly when you see a company of Microsoft's size, Meta's size, putting up great earnings, you would believe that their run is not over." The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 83.60 points, or 0.21%, to 40,752.96, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab gained 35.08 points, or 0.63%, to 5,604.14 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab gained 264.40 points, or 1.52%, to 17,710.74. Repercussions from frequent shifts in U.S. trade policy have hung over a solid earnings season so far, with many companies slashing or withdrawing their profit outlooks. S&P 500 first-quarter earnings are seen growing 12.9% on an annual basis, per LSEG data, up from the 8% growth rate seen on April 1. After the closing bell, fellow heavyweight Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab fell nearly 4% after its earnings as growth in its cloud unit lagged, while "Magnificent Seven" peer Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab was also due to report after the closing bell. Apple shares alternated between modest gains and losses before closing up 0.4% after a federal judge ruled the iPhone maker had violated a U.S. court order to reform its App Store. Eight straight sessions of gains marked the longest run for the Dow in a year and the longest for the S&P since August. Tech (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab rose 2.2% and communication services (.SPLRCL) , opens new tab rose 1.6%, leading sector gains. Economic data painted a mixed picture. Weekly jobless claims, the latest in a string of labor market data this week ahead of Friday's government payrolls report, showed layoffs increased more than expected last week, potentially hinting at a pick-up in job cuts following tariffs. ISM PMI data showed U.S. manufacturing contracted further in April, though slightly less than economists polled by Reuters had expected. Input prices were elevated. That followed Wednesday's data showing the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years in the last quarter. Eli Lilly (LLY.N) , opens new tab reported quarterly results that topped expectations, but shares tumbled 11.7% after CVS Health's (CVS.N) , opens new tab decision to drop Lilly's obesity drug Zepbound from some lists of medicines it covers for reimbursement. The healthcare sector (.SPXHC) , opens new tab slumped 2.8% as the worst performer on the session. McDonald's (MCD.N) , opens new tab also reported earnings and shares declined 1.9% to cap gains on the Dow after posting a surprise drop in first-quarter global sales. Mobile chip designer Qualcomm (QCOM.O) , opens new tab plunged 8.9% after it forecast a hit to revenue from the trade war. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.31-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and four new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 45 new highs and 66 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 16.15 billion shares, compared with the 19.56 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. https://www.reuters.com/business/us-stock-index-futures-bounce-microsoft-meta-jump-after-results-2025-05-01/

2025-05-01 22:41

NAPERVILLE, Illinois, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. farmers are now in the thick of corn-planting, a period usually filled with anticipation for the upcoming harvest potential. But the markets may not be bringing much joy to producers given that new-crop Chicago corn futures started May on the lowest note in five years. Sign up here. The U.S. growing season just began and there is plenty of time for weather concerns to pop up, though May can be a difficult time for corn to sustain any strength when planting is running as smoothly as it has been this year. New-crop December corn settled at $4.47-1/4 per bushel on Thursday, nearly 5% below last month’s high and almost 7% below the year-to-date high set in February. But $4.70 should still be in play. STREAK IN JEOPARDY December corn futures averaged $4.70 per bushel during February, which represents the 2025 insurance guarantee for U.S. farmers. Since at least 1973, December corn futures have never failed to return to their average February levels at some point after February, meaning new-crop corn likely still has upside of at least 5%. The contract came close to achieving the feat on April 16, topping at $4.69-1/2. Historically, there are some opportunities for strength in May. In seven of the last 10 Mays, December corn futures boasted a higher average than during April. But the month’s trend is generally downward. In seven of the last 10 years, new-crop corn settled lower at the end of May versus the month’s first session. The three exceptions were the mega-delayed U.S. planting of 2019, the harsh Brazilian corn drought of 2016 and the pandemic in 2020, just after new-crop corn hit its lowest springtime levels in 14 years. It is hard to excite the corn market over U.S. weather issues before June. But prices can nosedive in late June if forecasts look non-threatening through early July, when U.S. corn begins the critical pollination period. At the end of last June, new-crop corn was 11% lower than at the beginning of May. Although those losses are a bit larger than normal, a similar move this year would put corn just below $4 by the end of June. 2025 TWIN? Throughout 2023, market participants compared U.S. corn price trends with those from 2013, and a year later they did the same with 2024 and 2014. For the most part, these were relatively good analog years because of similar fundamental setups. But what about 2025? Logical progression might suggest 2015, though U.S. corn ending stocks 10 years ago were set to rise sharply from the previous year but slightly shrink into the next one. That is the opposite of this year’s likely trajectory. In terms of actual prices, December 2025 corn is trading most closely with the year-ago ones, though the trends have been very different directionally. Percentage moves since the beginning of the year track most closely with 2016, 2017 or even 2018. Those years were characterized by plentiful U.S. corn supplies – significantly more than today – and 2018 similarly featured a trade war with China. All three of those years contained a brief summer weather rally with futures eventually moving notably lower as U.S. harvest neared, which is the commonly expected pattern. At the broader level, 2025 is unlike any other year, with U.S. economic policy uncertainty near all-time highs. This complicates price-forecasting since seasonal patterns may be less reliable. But the geopolitical wild cards on the table for 2025 could act to enhance impacts from standard forces like weather, meaning that the markets could be in for a wild ride during the peak U.S. growing season. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chicago-corn-still-chasing-50-year-streak-prices-stagnate-braun-2025-05-01/

2025-05-01 22:14

May 1 (Reuters) - Strategy (MSTR.O) , opens new tab, the biggest corporate holder of bitcoin, reported a fifth consecutive quarterly loss on Thursday due to an unrealized loss on its cryptocurrency holdings. Bitcoin surged to record highs following Donald Trump's November 2024 presidential election victory, propelling the shares of Strategy to an all-time high, which contributed to earning it a spot in the Nasdaq 100 index in December. Sign up here. However, a wave of sweeping tariffs announced by Trump has since unsettled global markets, dampening risk appetite and potentially triggering investors to pull away from the crypto markets. Michael Saylor's Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, reported a quarterly loss of $5.91 billion from its digital assets due to a quarter-end bitcoin price of $82,445. Strategy moved to a new accounting rule in the first quarter, which allows the company to fairly value its unrealized gains or losses on its crypto holdings. "One fundamental difference now under fair value accounting is that our holdings are marked on the last day of every quarter, not throughout the quarter as before," said financial chief Andrew Kang on a post-earnings call. The company also announced a new $21 billion at-the-market common stock equity offering and intends to use proceeds for further acquisition of bitcoin. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company held 553,555 bitcoins for $37.90 billion as of April 28, 2025. Strategy's net loss was $4.22 billion, or $16.49 per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared to a loss of $53.1 million, or $0.31 per share, a year earlier. In March 2025, GameStop (GME.N) , opens new tab announced its board's unanimous decision to add bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, aligning with the Strategy's approach. This move highlights how companies are exploring alternative assets such as bitcoin to bolster their financial positions, especially when traditional revenue streams face headwinds. Strategy shares are up about 32% so far this year, compared with a near 6% fall in the Nasdaq 100 index (.NDX) , opens new tab. https://www.reuters.com/business/saylors-strategy-reports-fifth-consecutive-quarterly-loss-announces-21-billion-2025-05-01/

2025-05-01 21:41

HOUSTON, May 1 (Reuters) - Venture Global (VG.N) , opens new tab has raised $3 billion in debt finance towards the construction of its CP2 LNG plant in Louisiana, which would be the largest single liquefied natural gas plant in the U.S., the company said on Thursday. Venture Global is the U.S.' second-largest LNG exporter and has played a key role in making the country the world's largest exporter of the superchilled gas. Sign up here. The money raised will be used as part of the construction costs for the CP2 facility, which will have capacity to produce 28 million tonnes per annum of LNG, Venture Global said. "This new capital, on top of the more than $4 billion we have already invested to date, will enable continued fabrication, manufacturing and procurement at an accelerated pace, similar to Plaquemines," said Venture Global's CEO Mike Sabel, referring to another of the company's LNG export facilities. Two of the processing plants, also called trains, for the CP2 export facility will arrive in the U.S. in the coming months from Europe, Venture Global said in a statement. The project is yet to receive a final financial go-ahead from Venture Global. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venture-global-raises-3-billion-towards-building-cp2-louisiana-lng-plant-2025-05-01/

2025-05-01 21:13

ORLANDO, Florida, May 1 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets Sign up here. By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist From 'Lag 7' back to 'Mag 7'? The clouds of trade-related economic uncertainty are dark and heavy, but world markets were bathed in sunny optimism on Thursday as upbeat Microsoft and Meta earnings suggested there may be life in the U.S. 'Big Tech' trade yet. Meanwhile, debate continues to swirl on the fallout from the record hit to U.S. GDP from trade in the first quarter. Imports were the culprit, but exports won't be immune from the trade war going forward. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves. I'd love to hear from you, so please reach out to me with comments at jamie.mcgeever@thomsonreuters.com , opens new tab. You can also follow me at @ReutersJamie and @reutersjamie.bsky.social. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Tech tonic! Welcome back 'U.S. exceptionalism', Wall Street has missed you! Bullish outlooks and pledges to invest heavily in artificial intelligence from Meta and Microsoft on Wednesday followed similar guidance last week from Google parent Alphabet. And although the optimism was dented by Amazon and Apple on Thursday, investors are reminded that Silicon Valley won't stand idle in the face of China's push for tech and AI dominance. The 'Magnificent Seven' have been clobbered in recent months as the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek cast doubt over bloated valuations and the assumed omnipotence of U.S. 'Big Tech'. The Roundhill 'Mag 7' exchange-traded fund lost a third of its value between December 18 and April 7. But Thursday's surge means it has rebounded 20% in the last three weeks, and is now back above its close on April 2 when U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his sweep of global tariffs. So is the Nasdaq, more than recovering the 13% losses it incurred in the days after 'Liberation Day'. The Dow is still 3% lower, but is on its longest winning streak in almost a year - eight days and counting. The S&P 500 is flat, having clawed back its 15% 'Liberation Day' decline. It's a show of resilience, which in some ways is remarkable. The first quarter earnings season hasn't been all rosy, and dozens of companies have cut forecasts or removed guidance altogether. GDP contracted in the first quarter, the growth outlook is murky at best and cracks are starting to appear in the labor market. But perhaps reports of U.S. Big Tech's demise have been greatly exaggerated. LSEG estimates suggest the group's January-March earnings will rise 21.4% against 8.3% for the S&P 500's remaining 493 constituents. And even taking into account their underperformance in recent months, the 'Mag 7' stocks' weighting in the S&P 500 index is still around 30%, down from a record 34% in January. The question from investors now is whether the post-Liberation Day rebound has put these shares back into 'fair value' territory. Do they have more momentum, or not? It's been a crowded trade for the last two years at least, and although investors have trimmed their positions this year, they will still be heavily long. Tech benefits more than most sectors from lower interest rates, so the recent slide in Treasury yields will have helped juice the recovery. That recent run snapped back abruptly on Thursday, as Treasury yields climbed as much as 7 basis points at the short end of the curve. This helped support the dollar, but the biggest mover in FX on Thursday was the yen, which posted its biggest fall this year after the BOJ held rates as expected but slashed its economic growth outlook. Most central banks have preferred to take a 'wait and see' approach to the growth outlook in the face of heightened tariff uncertainty. But the BOJ stuck its neck out and halved its growth forecast for fiscal year ending March 2026 to 0.5% from 1.1%. It would appear that the BOJ's tightening cycle is over. After record import blow to U.S. GDP, beware export sucker punch Net trade delivered a record blow to the U.S. economy in the first quarter, as U.S. companies ramped up imports to get ahead of the Trump administration's tariff tsunami. While the focus is rightly on imports, it's also worth considering the export side of the ledger and the damage that could be caused by retaliation to Trump's trade war. Imports exploded 41.3% in the first quarter, causing a net 4.8 percentage point drag on growth. That was the largest since records began in the 1940s. Tariffs on imports make goods coming into the country more expensive, which is why businesses gobbled up as many as they could during the quarter in anticipation of Trump's levies. While a repeat on this scale in the second quarter is unlikely, imports are likely to remain a heavy drag on growth as firms stock up before the new duties on imports kick in. Exports also rose in the January-March period, but by an unremarkable 1.8%. If history is any guide, that figure could start shrinking because of retaliation in response to Trump's tariff salvos. While dozens of countries are trying to strike deals with the U.S., that does not mean they will simply roll over, especially if Washington plays hard ball. Many will retaliate in kind, making U.S. goods more expensive and uncompetitive in the international market. The Trump administration may not fully appreciate this risk. A 2021 working paper 'The Smoot-Hawley Trade War' , opens new tab by the National Bureau of Economic Research noted that Peter Navarro, then Director of Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and now a senior counsel to Trump, predicted that no country would retaliate against U.S. tariffs. "The evidence from the 1930s suggests it is a mistake, even for a country as wealthy and powerful as the United States, to assume that it can engage in a trade war with impunity," the paper concluded. 'CATASTROPHIC' Of course, the world today is unrecognizable from that of 1930 when President Herbert Hoover signed into law the infamous 'Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act', which raised tariffs on thousands of imports into the United States. The manufacturing process today is global, complex and much more sophisticated. Some 40% of U.S. imports are inputs used in the production of other goods and services. Trade was a lot more straightforward in the 1930s. But this protectionist measure - which the U.S. Senate's website describes as "among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history" - is widely cited as a key contributor to deepening the Great Depression, partly because many of America's trading partners retaliated in kind and global trade nose-dived. The NBER paper found that U.S. exports to countries that 'protested' the Smoot-Hawley import tariffs fell by 15-22%, while exports to 'retaliators' plunged by 28-33%. And if we focus on key exports, those from 'retaliators' and 'protesters', in aggregate, fell by an average of 22.5% after Smoot-Hawley. Canada was a particularly aggressive 'retaliator' in the 1930s. And nearly 100 years later, under the leadership of newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney, it could once again be among the world's most spirited fighters in the trade war with Washington. Canada is the USA's number one export market, and goods trade between the two countries last year totaled $762 billion. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce estimates that 3.7 million jobs across both nations are tied to that bilateral trade. ELASTIC DEMAND The U.S. is currently the world's second-largest global exporter, but net exports usually subtract from growth because the U.S. has run a trade deficit for the past 50 years. Last year, goods exports totaled $2.1 trillion, and imports totaled $3.3 trillion. Trump believes his tariffs will slash the deficit, revive U.S. industry, and bring back the manufacturing jobs that have been lost over the decades. But if U.S. companies could produce more cheaply at home, they would. And it takes years to set up factories and production lines, so even if Trump's policies do bear fruit, it won't be for a long time. Once the dust settles and trade deals have been reached, the levels of duties will probably have come down from what Trump is currently threatening. But tariffs will likely still be the highest in decades, and many countries will almost certainly have reacted in kind, for political and economic reasons. "Foreign demand is elastic, countries can substitute for American goods. Our export growth will slow down," says economist John Silvia. So net exports will almost certainly remain a drag on growth for some time to come. The only question is how big that drag will be. What could move markets tomorrow? Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Trading Day is also sent by email every weekday morning. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-pix-2025-05-01/

2025-05-01 21:02

Fonterra hopes to wrap up a sale by mid-2025, sources say Company is still looking at the IPO process, sources say Fonterra shares up 8% this year, market value $4.3 billion HONG KONG/SYDNEY, May 1 (Reuters) - Companies including Japan's Meiji, French group Lactalis and Canada's Saputo are considering bidding for the units dairy giant Fonterra (FCG.NZ) , opens new tab is seeking to divest, two sources with knowledge of the matter said this week. The companies would be bidding for Fonterra's global consumer businesses consisting of the operations and marketing of brands such as Mainland and Anchor butter, Kapiti ice cream and cheese and the Anlene powdered milk supplement. The sale also includes the Fonterra Oceania and Fonterra Sri Lanka units with operations from milk collection to processing to supplying products to consumers and food-service companies. Sign up here. A deal for the businesses Fonterra is divesting could be valued at around NZ$4 billion ($2.37 billion), the two sources said. U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus is also interested in buying the businesses, said one of the two sources and a third source with knowledge of Warburg's interest. New Zealand-based Fonterra announced in November a dual track plan to either sell the units or to list them through an initial public offering so it could focus on its core activity of processing milk at home. The company hopes to wrap up a sale by the middle of this year but is still looking at the IPO process, according to the first two sources. The three sources declined to be named as the matter was private. Fonterra said on Wednesday the process is confidential and cannot comment. Lactalis and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. Meiji said it is unable to make an official comment. Saputo (SAP.TO) , opens new tab did not respond to a request seeking comment. Fonterra is concurrently pressing ahead with IPO. In February, it named key management team members for the possible company, which it will name Mainland Group if the IPO route is chosen. Before making a final decision on a sale or IPO, the company plans to seek a vote from its farmer shareholders for their preferred divestment option. The operations being considered for a possible divestment accounted for about 19% of Fonterra's operating earnings in the first half of fiscal 2024, it said in May 2024. Shares of Fonterra have climbed 8% so far this year, giving it a market value of around $4.3 billion, LSEG data showed. The company's shares were down 0.2% on Thursday at NZ$4.53. ($1 = 1.6866 New Zealand dollars) https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/meiji-lactalis-saputo-warburg-may-bid-fonterras-24-billion-sale-sources-say-2025-05-01/