S&P 500 closes higher in rebound from inflation-fueled sell-off; Apple and Nvidia pop: Live updates

The S&P 500 ended Thursday's session in the green.

The broad market index rose 0.74%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 1.68%.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.43 points, or 0.01%.

— Hakyung Kim

Crude oil futures fell Thursday as worries about inflation overshadowed fears of a potential Iranian strike on Israel for the moment.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for May delivery lost $1.19, or 1.38%, to settle at $85.02 a barrel. The June Brent futures contract fell 74 cents, or 0.82%, to settle at $89.74 a barrel.

Oil prices rose more than 1% Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. and its allies see an Iranian strike against Israel as imminent.

But the geopolitical risk that lifted prices in the previous session pulled back on Thursday as the attack has not materialized yet, according to Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group.

— Spencer Kimball

The drive to fresh all-time highs for equities is seemingly detached from Federal Reserve monetary policy, according to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Chief Investment Officer Lisa Shalett.

"US stocks have emerged from the 2022 bear market; [the] uninterrupted 28% advance since last Halloween to all-time highs is now disconnected from real rates and Fed policy expectations," Shalett wrote in a monthly perspective note for April.

Meanwhile, "better-than-expected economic growth favors cyclical over secular growers who dominate the 'Mag 7' as nominal GDP growth remains above 5%," she noted.

— Brian Evans

The World Bank forecasts regional growth across emerging and developing economies of Europe and Central Asia to slow to 2.8% in 2024. Regional output growth is likely "to remain broadly unchanged in 2025," the institution said in a new report released Wednesday.

Restrictive monetary policies, geopolitical tensions and sluggish recoveries in major trading partners are headwinds to growth, according to the World Bank. The region is still trying to recover from major shocks including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2022 cost-of-living crisis.

"The private sector in several countries in the region faces barriers, which hamper its ability to expand and innovate," said Ivailo Izvorski, World Bank chief economist for the Europe and Central Asia region. "Boosting business dynamism will require addressing several challenges, including upgrading the competition environment, reducing state involvement in the economy, improving the quality of education, and strengthening the availability of finance for firms."

— Hakyung Kim

Amazon shares added 1.7% Thursday and hit an all-time high. This marked the first time the stock notched a record high since July 2021.

CEO Andy Jassy released his annual shareholder letter on Thursday, where he pledged to lower costs while furthering investments in new areas such as artificial intelligence.

— Hakyung Kim

Shares of Morgan Stanley dropped 4.6%, falling to their session lows, after The Wall Street Journal reported multiple federal regulators are investigation how the bank's wealth-management division vets its clients who are at risk of money laundering.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other Treasury Department offices were involved in the probe, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

The OCC and the SEC did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

— Yun Li

The Federal Reserve should be able to start cutting interest rates by the end of 2024, according to Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"We remain on our projection that we would see, by the end of the year, the Fed being in a position to take some action in a direction of bringing interest rates down," Georgieva said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "But again, don't hurry until the data tells you you can do it."

— Alex Harring

Bank of America thinks the Federal Reserve will not be able to start cutting interest rates until December, the firm told clients Thursday.

"2024 is starting to look like 2015, but in reverse. Then the Fed signaled hikes it could not deliver; now the Fed may be signaling cuts that the inflation data do not justify," BofA economist Michael Gapen said in a note. "The acceleration of inflation this year makes a cut prior to December challenging in our view."

The call puts Bank of America outside market consensus, with futures pricing pointing toward the initial cut happening in September, according to CME Group calculations.

In addition to a longer path for rate cuts, the bank raised its estimate of the Fed's "terminal rate," or the long-run level that is neither restrictive nor stimulative. That is now at 3.5% to 3.75%, half a percentage point higher than the previous estimate and about a full point above the Fed's estimate provided in March.

— Jeff Cox

Bitcoin's gold-like ability to resist any form of seizure makes it a valuable asset for the long term, according to BCA Research, which calls for the world's largest cryptocurrency to eventually rally to more than $100,000.

"Gold and bitcoin are conceptually joined at the hip because the value of both comes from their non-confiscatability by inflation, by bank failure, and — in the case of bitcoin — by state expropriation," Dhaval Joshi, the research firm's chief strategist, said in a 15-page note.

— Yun Li

Information technology was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500 during midday trading, gaining 1%.

Super Micro Computer and Broadcom were the biggest gainers in the sector, jumping about 3% each during midday trading. Nvidia rose 2.6%, while Arista Networks, Micron Technology and Gartner added nearly 2% each. Apple edged up 1.3%.

— Samantha Subin

These are some of the biggest movers during midday trading.

• Alpine Immune Sciences — Alpine Immune Sciences surged about 37% after Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced it will buy the biotech firm for $4.9 billion in cash.
• CarMax — The used vehicle seller tumbled 13% after reporting fourth-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share on revenue of $5.63 billion. Analysts had expected earnings per share of 49 cents on revenue of $5.80 billion, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.
• Nike — Shares of the sports goods maker added 3.2% following a Bank of America upgrade to buy from neutral. The bank said investors should buy the dip as estimates and valuation look compelling.

For more movers, check out our full list here.

— Tanaya Macheel

Barclays analyst Ryan MacWilliams upgraded software company Atlassian to overweight from equal weight on Thursday, driving shares nearly 2.3% higher.

According to MacWilliams, customers' increasing multiyear data center and cloud bookings as well as higher software developer job posts support the company's margins and growth in fiscal 2025 and beyond.

"We think TEAM could experience [free cash flow] margin expansion near-term as enterprise customers migrate from Server to DC/Cloud and as TEAM begins to lap migration investments in 2H24/FY25," MacWilliams said. "We also believe a healthier growth profile with more enterprise customers on its Cloud solutions warrants a higher multiple given improved revenue durability."

For more on the firm's upgrade, read here.

— Pia Singh

Altria's Philip Morris USA announced its second increase in cigarette list prices this year, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog, who cited industry trade contacts for the news.

Price hikes are usually a positive for cigarette companies as they are the main way tobacco companies drive revenue and earnings growth, she said. Herzog, however, noted that there are lingering concerns around the ability of low-income consumers to tolerate higher prices given other inflationary pressures.

"While there is some increased risk of potential downtrading (especially given pressures on the consumer), we believe brands like Marlboro with a very loyal customer base and strong/effective promotions should be able to keep those consumers within the franchise (e.g., by leveraging Marlboro Special Select)," Herzog wrote in a research note.

Altria shares were down less than 1% during trading Thursday. The stock has only gained about 2% year to date, but it touts a rich dividend yield of 9.5%.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

Rent the Runway rallied an eye-watering 140% during Thursday's session. The stock surged after Rent the Runway shared it had beat analysts' expectations for its fourth-quarter revenue, earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Coffee futures rose more than 1% Thursday at $126.65 per pound, their highest level since Oct. 12, 2022, when coffee traded as high as $218.85.

The commodity was last trading up around 1.9% at $216.60.

— Hakyung Kim

Yields on longer-dated Treasurys debt jumped Thursday following another surge of red ink for the U.S. government budget.

The 30-year bond rose about 4 basis points to 4.672% while the benchmark 10-year note climbed nearly 2 basis points to 4.578%. One basis point equals 0.01% and yields move opposite price.

Those moves came the day after the Treasury Department reported that the fiscal deficit for March totaled $236.5 billion, taking the total shortfall past $1 trillion halfway through the fiscal year. The deficit now stands at $1.06 trillion, pushing the total government debt to $34.6 trillion.

Higher yields have raised financing costs. Net interest on the debt totaled $79 billion in March, pushing the fiscal year total to $429 billion.

— Jeff Cox

The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) fell below its 50-day moving average of 40.43 on Thursday, its first time dipping against the benchmark level since Nov. 2, 2023. The exchange-traded fund is down more than 1% for the day, on pace for three consecutive days of losses.

Globe Life is by far the biggest laggard, with shares plunging more than 15%. KeyCorp, Aflac and Allstate are the following biggest laggards, with each declining more than 3%.

— Hakyung Kim

Wolfe Research sees some troubling signs when looking beneath the surface at communication services stocks.

The sector has led the S&P 500 higher in 2024 with a gain of more than 18%. The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLC) has climbed around 13% in the year, the second best of the SPDR exchange-traded funds.

But Wolfe's Rob Ginsberg called the fund "one of the most misleading" funds covering a sector. Specifically, he pointed to the fact that nearly half the ETF is weighted to just Meta and Alphabet.

Ginsberg cited the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Communication Services ETF (RSPC), which has slipped more than 1% this year. On top of that, he noted that the median stock in the XLC has dropped more than 4% since the fund hit a high in February.

"As the two now diverge with RSPC rolling over, it looks like [it's] only getting worse beneath the hood," Ginsberg wrote to clients.

Within the media sector, Ginsberg recommended being long John Wiley & Sons and short Comcast.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

— Alex Harring

Thursday's producer price index report offered "relief" for economists and investors following recent economic data, said Sam Millette, senior investment strategist at the Commonwealth Financial Network.

"This was a welcome development following yesterday's hotter-than-expected consumer price report and indicates that inflationary pressure may have been less widespread in March than initially thought," he said.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Trump Media fell 4% Thursday, adding to the stock's continuous decline.

The stock is down more than 47% in April, and 34% since it began publicly trading on March 26.

More about the stock's performance can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. stocks started Thursday's trading session slightly higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 81 points, or 0.2%.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Thursday that he still expects inflation to continue to pull back this year, though he acknowledged the process will not be smooth.

"I expect inflation to continue its gradual return to 2 percent, although there will likely be bumps along the way, as we've seen in some recent inflation readings," the central bank official said in a speech to bankers in New York.

The comments come the day after the consumer price index reading for March showed inflation running at a 3.5% annual rate, well above the Fed's 2% goal. While he noted the progress on inflation from its peak — above 9% in June 2022 — he said the Fed's work is not done.

"The economy has come a long way toward achieving better balance and reaching our 2% inflation goal. But we have not seen the total alignment of our dual mandate quite yet. I am committed to achieving maximum employment and price stability over the long term," he said.

— Jeff Cox

The producer price index rose 0.2% in March, as investors try to navigate a bevy of mixed inflation signals. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 0.3% for the PPI. Core CPI rose 0.2%, as expected.

— Fred Imbert

The price of global benchmark Brent crude oil could spike to $100 a barrel if Iran directly attacks Israel, a former senior White House energy official said.

Bob McNally, president and founder of Rapidan Energy, said global crude markets still have not factored in $10 of geopolitical risk to oil prices even as tensions are running red hot in the Middle East.

Crude oil futures rose more than 1% Wednesday with the Brent settling at $90.48 a barrel as the U.S. braces for an imminent attack by Iran against Israel. Washington believes major missile or drone strikes by Iran, or its proxies, against military and government targets in Israel could happen in the coming days, people familiar with the intelligence told Bloomberg News.

— Spencer Kimball

Equities sold off Wednesday following March's hotter-than-expected CPI report. The major averages are now firmly in negative territory for April, but BTIG's Jonathan Krinsky says there is still "no rush to buy here."

"After an initial rally attempt after the gap-down, sellers look to be firmly in control again with SPX back under 5150. Because the 50-day moving average is rising, it's now just about 5100, which seems like a magnet at this point," Krinsky wrote in a Wednesday note.

He added that "the three macro headwinds from the '22 bear market persist with yields, dollar, and crude all up."

— Hakyung Kim

The People's Bank of China has set the midpoint fixing rate for the yuan at 7.0968 per U.S. dollar, 1,654 basis points stronger compared to a Reuters estimate.

This is the biggest discrepancy since Reuters started its estimations in 2018.

At 1:10 p.m. Shanghai time, the offshore yuan was trading at 7.2530, after China reported a lower-than-expected inflation rate for March, highlighting continued weakness in the world's second-largest economy.

— Lim Hui Jie

Apple supplier Foxconn is considering implementing a rotational chief executive system to nurture future talent, according to a Reuters report.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters said "the plan was a response to repeated calls by investors to boost corporate governance by separating the role of chief executive from the chairperson."

Young Liu has held both the current chairman and CEO roles since 2019 in the 50-year-old Taiwanese company. Liu took over from founder Terry Gou, who held both roles until his retirement in 2019.

— Reuters

China's consumer price index rose just 0.1% year on year in March, down from a 0.7% rise in February and lower than the 0.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

On a month-on-month basis, the country's CPI slid 1%, sharply lower than the 0.5% fall expected by Reuters.

Separately, China's producer price index slid 2.8% in March compared with the same period last year, in line with expectations.

Lim Hui Jie

Two rate-sensitive sectors of the broad market took their lumps on Wednesday as stocks sold off and the 10-year Treasury yield spiked above 4.5%.

Real estate slid 4.1%, making it the biggest loser among the 11 sectors of the S&P 500. Though all the underlying stocks within the sector were negative, SBA Communications, Extra Space Storage and Boston Properties all tumbled more than 6%.

Utilities also slumped, dropping 1.7%. AES Corporation, Pinnacle West Capital and CenterPoint Energy dragged the sector lower. All three stocks dropped more than 3%.

Real estate and utilities can have a tough time in high interest rate environments. That is because higher rates raise borrowing costs for both real estate investment trusts and utilities.

Those sectors also become less appealing to income-seeking investors when rates are high, as they may be drawn to yields from safer Treasurys rather than the dividends coming from real estate and utility stocks.

— Darla Mercado

It is not immediately apparent that regional banks fell as far as they did Wednesday in response to March's faster inflation and subsequent repricing of Treasury yields higher. After all, the S&P 500 Financials Index only fell 1.5% compared with a 1% drop in the S&P 500.

But the S&P 500 Financials contain all sorts of outfits, from the country's largest banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of America, to credit card networks Visa and Mastercard.

Drill down closer to regional banks to find the S&P 1500 Regional Banks Index, composed of all those in the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600, to see it down 4.5% Wednesday. Examples abound of the carnage: Long Island's New York Community Bancorp was off 8.1%, Boston's Brookline Bancorp by 5.9% and Western Alliance Bancorp in Phoenix by 5.8%. West Virginia's MVB Financial tumbled 5.1% and New Jersey's BCB Bancorp fell 4.5%.

Bank of America analysts on Monday said investors will scour first-quarter earnings reports from the banks for "potential areas of vulnerability in a higher for longer rate backdrop (commercial real estate, overall credit, deposit costs) while searching for a bottom in net interest income (NII; ~80% of revenues on average)."

— Scott Schnipper

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals dipped 1% during extended trading after the biotechnology company announced it will acquire Alpine Immune Sciences for $4.9 billion in cash, or about $65 a share.

Alpine shares surged more than 36% after the bell. The biopharmaceutical company develops protein-based immunotherapies that treat certain autoimmune diseases.

— Samantha Subin

U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday night.

Futures linked to the S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, while Dow futures dropped 79 points, or 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures slid 0.16%.

— Darla Mercado