Stocks fell on Thursday as fresh estimates on first-quarter GDP disappointed Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 375 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite declined about 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.46% or -23.21 points to 5,048.42
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.98% or -375.12 points to 38,085.80
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.64% or -100.99 points to 15,611.76
In Economic News:
The U.S. economy grew at a weaker-than-expected pace in the first-quarter, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday, with gross domestic product (GDP) rising by a seasonally and inflationarily adjusted annualized pace of 1.6%. That growth was below estimates and followed a 3.4% gain in the previous quarter.
"This report was the worst of both worlds: economic growth is slowing and inflationary pressures are persisting," wrote Chris Zaccarelli, investment chief at Independent Advisor Alliance, quoted in CNBC. "The Fed wants to see inflation start coming down in a persistent manner, but the market wants to see economic growth and corporate profits increasing, so if neither are headed in the right direction then that's going to be bad news for markets."
On the Earnings Front:
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) shares fell Thursday after the social media giant issued weak forward guidance despite its first-quarter earnings beat late Wednesday. The company expects second-quarter revenue between $36.5 billion to $39 billion, with the midpoint of the range, 37.75 billion, coming in below analyst expectations.
"Meta's virtual ownership of the social graph, strong competitive moat, and focus on the user experience position it to become an enduring blue-chip company built for the long term," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note Thursday, while also decreasing their price target to $480 from $535.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) shares declined on Thursday after the hardware, software and consulting provider announced it would acquire cloud software maker HashiCorp (NASDAQ: HCP) following its disappointing first-quarter revenue report. IBM plans to pay $35 per share in a cash deal with a $6.4 billion enterprise value.
"HashiCorp has a proven track record of enabling clients to manage the complexity of today's infrastructure and application sprawl. Combining IBM's portfolio and expertise with HashiCorp's capabilities and talent will create a comprehensive hybrid cloud platform designed for the AI era," said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in a statement.
In the News:
Honda (NYSE: HMC) announced Thursday it plans to invest $11 billion to create a "comprehensive EV value chain" in Ontario, Canada, with the new North American plant including both assembly and battery plants as well as other facilities to support production of all-electric and fuel cell vehicles.
"In North America, following the initiative to establish our EV production system capability in the U.S., we will now begin formal discussions toward the establishment of a comprehensive EV value chain here in Canada, with the support of the governments of Canada and Ontario," CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in a statement. "We will strengthen our EV supply system and capability with an eye toward a future increase in EV demand in North America."
For Friday:
Market participants will react to earnings from companies including Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) after market on Thursday, and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) Friday morning. March's personal spending expenditures (PCE) and April's consumer sentiment readings are also due out Friday morning.