Stock market live updates: Dow rises 150 points, stocks down for the week, oil rebounding

U.S. equities opened Friday in the green, with a gain of 180 points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P 500 rose 0.68% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.44%. Stocks were helped by a rebound in oil prices after their unprecedented sell-off. — Fitzgerald 

As the economy shut down, businesses diverted spending to technology, while cutting back more broadly on other outlays including their payments to suppliers, according to data tracking business-to-business spending. Even before the state shutdowns took effect in the second half of March, companies had boosted spending on technology. Overall spending slipped 2%, but IT spending doubled in March, after rising by 75% in February, compared to the year earlier, according to data from Cortera. Spending for everything from laptops to software, IT services and cabling was up 100% in March, presumably as companies shifted work from offices to homes and moved more of their own businesses. —Domm 

The S&P 500 is down 2.5% this week, gone nowhere for the past two weeks. Bears are arguing the current economic climate is not enough to justify the S&P 500 at the 2,800 level and that the economy is signalling a much bigger slowdown than stocks are pricing in. There is big execution risk around reopening and a secondary wave of infections. —Pisani 

Bespoke Investment Group warned about the last trading day of the week: Friday, which has proved to be the worst trading session of the week, according to data from this year.  “For all of 2020, though, Fridays have been the worst day for the market with a median decline of 0.82% and gains barely even 25% of the time,” the firm said. Stocks are pointing to gains at the open, but are down for the week. —Fitzgerald 

Shares of People’s United Financial soared nearly 11% in premarket trading on Friday after the bank holding company reported better-than-expected quarterly results. People’s United earned 33 cents per share in the first quarter, above analysts’ estimate of 24 cents per share, according to FactSet. The company also reported an operating income of $141 million, a 15% increase from last year. Still, the stock has fallen more than 30% this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. –Li

CNBC’s Jim Cramer laid out two buckets of stocks investors can play through the coronavirus pandemic. The first basket of equities that Cramer suggests picking among includes firms that are “big enough and deep pocketed enough” to weather the economic impact, including IBM and Union Pacific. In the second bucket are companies that have been able to adapt, maintain business and benefit from the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to slow the spread of the deadly disease, Cramer said. “If you want to invest right now, you have to own some stocks from the second bucket — the Covid winners — and whenever the market gets slammed, you can buy members of the first bucket, the big businesses with deep pockets,” he said. The second bucket includes Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Target. —Tyler Clifford, Li

Neuberger Berman senior portfolio manager Steve Eisman said on “Fast Money” Thursday night that the large U.S. banks are “the best cyclical play out there.” Eisman, whose bets against the housing market were detailed in the book “The Big Short,” said that he has short positions against Canadian banks. Eisman also said that he was short against Trex, a company in the housing industry that makes decking and outdoor items. — Pound, Imbert 

Moffett Nathanson said the production and distribution of media content will be permanently changed by the coronavirus crisis, and Disney is the only company that is capable of adapting.  “We believe Disney is the only company with a big enough lifeboat and the organizational will to come out of these secular changes in a strong position,” the firm said in a note to clients. As customer behavior permanently shifts to streaming models, Netflix Amazon and Disney will emerge with the lion’s share of scripted content. Moffett Nathanson has a buy rating on Disney and $120 per share price target. The firm said Fox’s focus on live news and sports remains the right strategy. — Fitzgerald 

Shares of Intel sank more than 5% in premarket trading on Friday after giving second quarter guidance below expectations. Intel said it forecasts $1.10 in adjusted earnings per share and $18.50 billion in revenue in the second quarter. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected adjusted second-quarter earnings of $1.19 per share on $17.97 billion in revenue.Intel said it would not give guidance for the full year. The company beat on the top and bottom lines of its first quarter earnings. —Fitzgerald 

Amid unprecedented demand loss in the commodities market due to the coronavirus pandemic, Goldman Sachs said that before oil can meaningfully rebound demand will have to recover. “While acknowledging that a balanced market is in eyesight, more forward-looking assets like equities can look past the next several weeks and begin to price a recovery; however, commodities simply do not have that luxury,” Goldman’s global head of commodities research Jeffrey Currie said in a note to clients Friday. He said that while the rebalancing period for oil has begun, it will take 4-8 weeks to resolve before “we can comfortably argue a bottom has been carved out.” – Stevens

Shares of Tyson Foods fell more than 1% in premarket trading on Friday following a downgrade to market-perform from outperform from AB Bernstein. The Wall Street firm said it has near-term uncertainty around Tyson’s ability to maintain production levels with closed production plants and absent workers. “There could be further downside as it is difficult to contain the spread of the virus in highly labor-intensive meat plants,” AB Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard told clients. Tyson closed its two largest pork plants in Iowa and Indianan this week after employees tested positive for the COVID-19. “While we continue to expect African Swine Fever-led upside over the medium term, we believe that it is prudent to downgrade the stock in the interim,” Howard added. — Fitzgerald 

Shares of the telecommunications company jumped nearly 1% in premarket trading after posting a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street’s estimates. Verizon reported earnings of $1.26 per share, 3 cents higher than expected, according to Refinitiv. Revenue came in short of expectations. Verizon slashed its full year earnings outlook to a range of -2% to 2% growth, compared to the 2% to 4% range they previously released. —Fitzgerald 

Oil rose again on Friday, extending recent strength that’s seen it rally more than 40% in the last two days, as traders hope that depressed prices will force additional production cuts. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose 2.6%, or 44 cents, to trade at $16.94, while international benchmark Brent crude was 3.1% higher at $21.99. WTI gained 19% in each of the last two sessions as prices rebounded from historic lows. But despite these gains, the contract is still set to post its eighth week of losses in nine. The coronavirus pandemic has led to unprecedented demand loss, and with storage around the world rapidly filling, traders are worried that there might soon be nowhere for oil to go. – Stevens

The House passed a $484 billion package Thursday to bolster small businesses and hospitals ravaged by the coronavirus crisis and expand testing desperately needed to start the return to normal life. The bill is now being sent to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. Donning face coverings and voting in alphabetical sets to cut the risk of infection, representatives approved the bill easily by a 388-5-1 vote. The law would add more funds to the Paycheck Protection Program, add to the Small Business Administration’s disaster loans and grants, give grants to hospitals and bolster coronavirus testing, a core piece of any plan to restart the U.S. economy. —Pramuk, Fitzgerald 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration may extend its national social distancing guidelines until early in the summer or later. “We may, and we may go beyond that,”  Trump said at a White House press briefing when asked if the federal guidelines would need to be extended at least until the start of summer. “We’re going to have to see where it is,” Trump said. “I think people are going to know just out of common sense. At some point, we won’t have to do that. But until we feel safe, we’re going to be extending.” The federal guidelines, which were first shared in mid-March and had already been extended once, were set to expire at the end of April. — Breuninger, Macias 

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose in premarket trading, pointed to a gain of about 200 points at the opening bell on Friday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also set to open in the green. Helping equities is the rebound in oil, which hit record lows earlier in the week. The commodity, which has seen an evaporation of demand due to the coronavirus, rose about 5% on Friday morning. 

Stocks ended Thursday’s volatile session little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.17% gain, while the S&P 500 closed down about 0.05%. The Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.01%. However, U.S. equities are pointing to losses for the week after a sell-off earlier in the week due to oil’s dismal rout. The Dow is down 3% since Monday, on pace for its first negative week in three. The 500-stock index is down 2.67% this week, heading into Friday’s session. The Nasdaq is down 1.8% this week. — Fitzgerald 

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