US markets are mixed in the second half of Thursday trading. The Dow remains on track for a third consecutive day in the red after some ugly second-quarter earnings.
Stocks opened lower but retraced some of their losses as the day went on. The Dow was little changed and the only benchmark to remain in the red. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite came back from their losses and were up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
“Sentiment has turned negative towards stocks amid concerns that this earnings season could be a weak one, especially for technology companies whose valuations are still sky-high,” wrote Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com.
Netflix, for example, reported earnings after Wednesday’s close, including a massive miss on subscriber growth. Its shares traded more than 10% lower Thursday. The streaming business added 2.7 million new users in the second quarter, compared with a forecast of 5 million.
Aside from earnings, investors are weighing worries about the health of the economy against the anticipated growth-boosting interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, expected in for the end of this month.
“But unless growth starts to pick up, central banks’ actions will only help to delay the inevitable: a sizeable correction,” Razaqzada said.
Strong dollar policy
In the world of currencies, comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were in focus.
At the G7 finance ministers meeting in Chantilly, France, Mnuchin said that the United States’ dollar policy wouldn’t change for now, which had market participants wondering whether currency intervention is on the horizon.
“The US is keeping its options opened for a possible currency intervention, as it always [has],” said Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist at Nordea Asset Management.
“This is a potent threat to the BOJ and ECB to stop them from choosing more negative interest rates,” he added.
The US dollar, measured by the ICE US Dollar Index, was down 0.3% at 96.931.
