Global investors on Thursday digested new data, earnings reports, and policy statements around US President Joe Biden's social spending framework. In Europe, the FTSE edged down 0.05%, the German DAX edged down 0.06%, the French CAC rose 0.75%, and the broad STOXX 600 index eked up 0.24%. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.68%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) climbed 1.39%, the small cap Russell 2000 (.RUT) rose 2.02%, and the broad S&P 500 (.INX) index rose 0.98%.
Among US stocks in the S&P 500, the biggest decliners today were led by aerospace and defense firm Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), which fell 7.6% at the close due to a mixed earnings report where it beat earnings estimates but missed revenue estimates. The other biggest decliners were ecommerce firm eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), down 6.76%, tobacco firm Altria (NYSE: MO), down 6.15%, medical device firm Teleflex (NYSE: TFX), down 5.16%, and reinsurance firm Everest Re Group (NYSE: RE), down 4.56%.
The biggest gainers were led by test equipment firm Teradyne (NYSE: TER), up 11.33% on several analyst upgrades from Craig-Hallum, Cowen (NASDAQ: COWN), and UBS (NYSE: UBS). The other biggest gainers were manufacturing firm A O Smith (NYSE: AOS), up 10.51%, automaker Ford Motor (NYSE: F), up 8.7%, data services firm Nielson Holdings (NYSE: NLSN), up 6.54%, and chemicals firm Albermarle (NYSE: ALB), up 6.24%. Among COVID stocks, biopharmaceutical firm Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) plunged 15.18%, while biotech firm Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) jumped 7.36%. In fixed income markets, US Treasury bond yields were largely unchanged.
In commodities markets, as of press time, the price of international Brent crude oil dipped 0.08%, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.48%. US natural gas futures fell 7.52% in a sharp reversal from Wednesday. The prices of futures for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper were all largely unchanged. Cotton futures rose 2.83%, while coffee futures dipped 1.07%. In crypto asset markets, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose 3.16% in a rebound from this week's correction, Ether (ETH) jumped 6.05%, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped 7.67%, Cardano (ADA) rose 1.48%, and Solana (SOL) rose 2.57%.