Stocks were lower on Thursday as Wall Street weighed a mixed batch of corporate earnings, with Tesla's
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Taking center-stage Thursday, Tesla shares sank as much as 8% after the electric car maker reported a more than 20% drop in both net income and GAAP earnings year-over-year in the first quarter. CEO Elon Musk signaled that the company would prefer higher volumes to higher margins.
"We've taken a view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here, versus a lower volume and higher margin," Musk said on an earnings call.
Elsewhere for earnings, IBM
American Express
AT&T
In economic news, existing home sales fell at a larger-than-expected rate in March as high interest rates priced many would-be buyers out of the market. Sales represented a 2.4% decline over February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million, according to the National Association of Realtors report on Thursday.
"Home sales are trying to recover and are highly sensitive to changes in mortgage rates," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in a statement. "Yet, at the same time, multiple offers on starter homes are quite common, implying more supply is needed to fully satisfy demand. It's a unique housing market."
Separately, initial jobless claims rose at a higher-than-expected rate again last week, totaling 245,000 for the week ended April 15, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data from the previous week was also upwardly revised by 1,000, signaling the labor market is slowing in response to the Federal Reserve's rate hiking campaign. Moreover, continuing jobless claims, which run a week behind, rose by 61,000 to a more-than-expected 1.865 million.
Looking ahead, traders will react to earnings reports from companies including Procter & Gamble