Stock market today: Live updates

High-quality stocks, or those that have high free cash flow yield, are a “most-have” factor for 2024, according to Piper Sandler’s chief investment strategist Michael Kantrowitz.

In a recent note, Kantrowitz suggested that investors look towards high-quality stocks that also have high momentum for opportunities, even as the three major stock indexes hit new records.

“The current momentum trade has much stronger fundamentals than what we saw in 1999/2000, and we believe there is still room to run,” he wrote.

The strategist shared several stocks that fit this description, including Gap and Cigna.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Semiconductors outperformed Thursday after the Federal Reserve maintained expectations for three rate cuts this year. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) climbed 3% during midday trading.

Major advancers driving the ETF higher include Nvidia, which was up by more than 1%. The U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 2.5%. Shares of Broadcom advanced 7.1%.

Those gains put the VanEck Semiconductor ETF on pace for winning week, up by 4.6% thus far.

Reddit popped 38% on Thursday to open at $47 a share in its New York Stock Exchange debut.

The social media company began trading under the ticket symbol “RDDT” after pricing its IPO at $34 a share on Wednesday. It marks the first major social media company to go public since Pinterest in 2019.

— Samantha Subin, Jonathan Vanian

These are some of the stocks making the biggest midday moves:

• Micron — The semiconductor manufacturer popped 16% after beating analyst expectations for its fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue. The company also guided for higher third-quarter earnings and revenue than consensus estimates.
• Apple — The technology stock dropped 3.5% on news that it was being sued by the Department of Justice.
• Chewy — Shares of the pet goods retailer fell 5.4% on the heels of disappointing guidance for the first quarter. 

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Amid the ongoing AI craze, Raymond James thinks investors can find opportunities in other parts of the data center industry—namely companies that manufacture optical materials and other data center parts.

Encouraged by Nvidia’s unveiling of its new Blackwell graphics processing units earlier this week, the firm highlighted Coherent, Lumentum and Applied Optoelectronics as companies that could be additional beneficiaries of industry’s continued growth.

Coherent’s share price popped 5.3% on Thusday, while shares of Lumentum and Applied Optoelectronics rose 4.7% and 3.1% respectively. Optical materials maker Coherent, the firm’s top pick, has gained more than 45% so far this year.

For more on these Nvidia derivate plays, read here.

— Pia Singh

Shares of pizza chain operator Papa John’s International fell 5.6% on Thursday after Shake Shack named Papa John’s CEO Rob Lynch as its chief on Thursday, replacing Randy Garutti, who helped found the burger chain in 2004.

Lynch, who has served as Papa John’s CEO since 2019, will join Shake Shack in his new role on May 20. He will be in an advisory role at Papa John’s until April 30.

Shake Shack’s shares were down 1.6%.

— Pia Singh

Apple shares dropped more than 3% after the Justice Department sued the iPhone maker in a landmark antitrust case. That decline would be the tech giant’s biggest since Aug. 4, when it fell 4.8%.

— Fred Imbert, Gina Francolla

Apple shares slid 3% after the Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday, saying that its iPhone ecosystem is a monopoly that drove its “astronomical valuation” at the expense of consumers, developers and rival phone makers.

Federal antitrust enforcement and 16 attorneys general also say that Apple’s anti-competitive practices extend beyond the iPhone and Apple Watch businesses, citing Apple’s advertising, browser, FaceTime and news offerings.

“Each step in Apple’s course of conduct built and reinforced the moat around its smartphone monopoly,” the complaint filed in the District of New Jersey said.

— Kif Leswing, Rohan Goswami

Existing home sales posted an unexpected surge in February despite another big jump in prices, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Completed sales of single-family homes, townhouses, condos and co-ops jumped 9.5% from January, countering expectations for a 1.3% decline in the Dow Jones consensus. It was the largest monthly increase since February 2023.

The gains came even as the median sales price rose 5.7% from a year ago to $384,500. Declining interest rates helped soften the blow, with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.74%, down 0.14 percentage point on the month but up the same level from a year ago.

— Jeff Cox

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. hit a 22-month high in March, according to the S&P Global Flash U.S. Composite reading released Thursday.

The index came in at 52.5 for the month, up 0.3 point from February and the highest going back to mid-2022. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 51.8 on a gauge that measures the percent difference between companies reporting expansion versus contraction.

On the services side, the flash PMI was 51.7, a decline of 0.6 point from a month ago and just below the 51.8 estimate.

— Jeff Cox

Micron Technology surged more than 16% before the bell and headed for its best day since December 2011 after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results driven by a boom in demand for artificial intelligence.

The memory chipmaker posted earnings of 42 cents per share, far surpassing the 25 cent loss expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Micron reported revenues of $5.82 billion, ahead of the $5.35 billion expected.

“We believe Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the semiconductor industry of the multi-year opportunity enabled by AI,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a release.

Alongside the top-and-bottom line beat, Micron Technology offered rosy revenue guidance for its fiscal third quarter.

Stocks opened higher on Thursday as Wall Street looked to continue its rally to record highs.

The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.9% The Dow Jones Industrial added 128 points, or 0.35%.

— Samantha Subin

Here are some of the names making moves before the bell:

• Micron — Shares jumped nearly 16.6% after the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations. Micron also guided for higher-than expected third-quarter earnings and revenue.
• Revolve Group — The fashion retailer added 4.5% after getting an upgrade from TD Cowen to outperform from market perform. The firm said it expects Revolve to see a return to growth after a year of markdowns and broad-based softness.
• Astera Labs (ALAB) —The stock gained 5%, one day after debuting on the Nasdaq. Astera, which sells data center connectivity chips to cloud and artificial-intelligence infrastructure companies, soared 72% on its first day trading.

To see more stocks making premarket moves, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area showed unexpected growth in March, according to a survey from the regional Federal Reserve released Thursday.

The Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey showed a reading of 3.2, representing the percentage difference between companies reporting expansion against contraction. That was down 2 points from February but ahead of the Dow Jones consensus for a -5 reading.

It was the second straight month for a positive number and only the fifth expansionary level since May 2022.

While most firms reported ongoing inflation pressures, the prices paid index registered its lowest reading since May 2020, down 13 points to 3.7. Employment remained negative at -9.6 while new orders showed growth for the first time since October.

—Jeff Cox

Initial filings for unemployment insurance changed little last week, indicating that companies are still reluctant to let go of workers.

Jobless claims totaled 210,000 for the week ended March 16, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous period’s upwardly revised level, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 213,000.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged up to 1.807 million, an increase of 4,000 and slightly higher than the 1.79 million FactSet estimate.

— Jeff Cox

The Bank of England maintained interest rates at the 5.25% level on Thursday, but suggested that cuts could come in the near future if inflation falls quicker than expected.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to leave rates at their current level. One member voted for a 25 basis point cut to 5%.

— Elliot Smith, Samantha Subin

Five Below shed nearly 12% before the bell after posting quarterly results that fell short of analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

The value retailer reported earnings of $3.65 per share on $1.34 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated earnings of $3.78 per share and revenues totaling $1.35 billion.

The company also offered light revenue and EPS guidance for the first quarter and full year.

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut rates thrice this year, Matt Higgins, CEO and co-founder of RSE Ventures, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia,” in a view at odds with Fed signals and market expectations.

No rate cuts were “definitely on the table,” with one cut most likely later in the year, he added.

The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it would cut interest rate three times in 2024 while holding them steady at its latest meeting.

“If unemployment does not start to pick up, and you don’t see some more downward pressure on core inflation, I’m not sure there are going to be three rate cuts in the second half of this year,” Higgins said.

– Dylan Butts