Stock market today: Dow jumps 850 points, Nasdaq slips after Broadcom outlook flop

Market sentiment improved throughout Thursday morning, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) pulled ahead.

The Dow jumped by nearly 2%, or over 900 points, as financials and healthcare stocks took the lead.

Goldman Sachs (GS), the Dow’s largest component by weight, jumped 4.7% as excitement builds for SpaceX’s initial public offering on June 12. Goldman has taken the lead role in the listing.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH), another top component, climbed 4.8%, as investors rotated out of chip stocks. American Express’s (AXP) 4.4% gain also helped lift the blue-chip index.

Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:

Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) sell-off deepened Thursday, with the cryptocurrency falling more than 6% to around $62,750 before rebounding toward $64,000.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been in sell-off mode in recent sessions. Investor sentiment deteriorated earlier this week after digital asset treasury giant Strategy (MSTR) revealed it sold tokens for the first time since 2022.

Although the sale of 32 tokens was just a fraction of Strategy’s bitcoin holding, the move rattled markets, as it was a departure from the company’s aggressive buy-and-hold strategy.

Analysts have been eying $65,000 as a key support level.

“If there were to be a protracted and significant break below here, then that would increase the likelihood that the February low of $60,000 comes into play,” Trade Nation senior market analyst David Morrison said.

Read more here.

Jobless claims picked up during the Memorial Day holiday week, but they continue to be at historically low levels in a sign that the labor market remains largely in stasis.

Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 30 rose by 13,000 claims to 225,000, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, putting US jobless claims at their highest level since February.

Jobless claims rose from a revised reading of 212,000 claims last week and were above economists’ median estimates of 215,000, per Bloomberg data.

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending May 23 decreased slightly to 1.77 million.

Stocks were mixed on Thursday as Broadcom (AVGO) dragged tech stocks lower, putting a dent in the AI trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) led the major indexes, rising 1%, or 500 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 0.7%.

The tech sector was the biggest laggard at the open as semiconductor stocks traded lower. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) also continued to decline, falling 4% to around $64,000, as investors took a more risk-off posture.

Oil retreated, with Brent (BZ=F) prices down 2.6% to $95 per barrel and WTI crude prices (CL=F) down 3% to $93 per barrel. Investors continued to look for a breakthrough in US-Iran negotiations but prospects of an immediate deal have faded amid recent escalations in the Middle East.

Broadcom (AVGO) stock fell 15% in premarket trading on Thursday after the company’s outlook didn’t live up to Wall Street’s high expectations.

Although Broadcom’s revenue and earnings technically came in above the Street’s estimates, shares appear to be tumbling after the custom chip designer’s AI sales forecast missed estimates.

Semiconductor revenue from artificial intelligence in the second quarter grew 143% year over year. However, AI chip sales for the third quarter were projected at $16 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $17.2 billion.

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports that Broadcom is on track to wipe out about $300 billion in market cap. If this holds into the Thursday close, it will mark one of the worst routs in market cap for a company in history, per data from the Financial Times.

Read more about Broadcom’s results here.

In a filing on Wednesday, SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) confirmed it’s seeking to raise $75 billion from its initial public offering, a record amount for any IPO.

Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports:

In the filing, the company said it would offer 555,555,555 shares at $135 each, raising $75 billion. That would amount to 4.2% of the entire float, with the remaining 95.8% held by CEO Elon Musk and other insiders. SpaceX authorized the underwriters to sell additional shares if needed, bringing the total raised to $85.7 billion.

At that share price, it would give SpaceX a hypothetical market cap of around $1.785 trillion.

SpaceX plans to use the proceeds for purposes “including the expansion of our AI compute infrastructure, enhancements to our launch infrastructure and launch vehicles, increases in the scale and capacity of our satellite constellations, and any remaining amounts for general corporate purposes.”

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Oil slipped after three days of gains after the US said Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire, which would remove a key sticking point in talks between Washington and Tehran.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) fell toward $95 a barrel, after rising almost 10% in the week’s first three sessions, while Brent (BZ=F) settled near $98 on Wednesday. “The ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of Hizbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hizbollah operatives from the South Litani Sector,” the US State Department said.

While the US and Iran have agreed on a rough framework to extend their truce by two months and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, negotiations over the final details are dragging on, even as the two sides stepped up strikes. “No tangible progress has been achieved” in talks with Washington and Tehran is prepared to target objectives inside Israel if its attacks on Beirut continue, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister as saying.

Oil has erased last week’s drop as a flare-up in clashes evaporated optimism over a deal to extend the current ceasefire, and potentially see flows resume through the strait. As talks drag on, the world’s supply cushion is rapidly running out – with US government data on Wednesday showing crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI, fell for a sixth week to near what is known as a minimum operating level.

Read more here.