Stocks Slide Into The Red, Gold Jumps
New York (Apr 24) Markets have lost their early gains, and they've now slipped into the red.
Meanwhile, gold has surged by around $15/oz in the last half hour. It's trading near $1,293/oz.
After the closing bell on Wednesday, Apple announced better-than-expected earnings, boosted its dividend, and increased its share buyback authorization. It also announced a 7-to-1 stock split.
Apple is up a whopping 7% right now, and it's arguably what's keeping the Nasdaq in the green.
Earlier today, we learned that initial jobless claims jumped to 329,000 from 305,000 a week ago. This was a bit higher than the 315,000 expected by economists.
On a much more positive note, durable goods orders jumped 2.6% beating expectations for a 2.0% increase. Nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft jumped 2.2%, which was much stronger than the 1.5% expected.