Stocks touched all-time highs on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he would release his plan to reform the tax system in the next few weeks.
Although they back-tracked on some of their gains near the end of the trading day, all three major indices still finished in the green.
First up, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 20,172.40, +118.06, (+0.59%) S&P 500: 2,307.87, +13.20, (+0.58%) Nasdaq: 5,715.18, +32.73, (0.58%) US 10-year yield: 2.397%, +0.057 WTI Crude: $53.09 per barrel, +0.75, +1.34%
1. US President Donald Trump said that in the new few weeks he will release his plan to reform the US tax system. “We’re going to be announcing something over the next, I would say, two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax,” Trump said at a meeting with airline executives on Thursday. He added that he is “lowering the overall tax burden on American businesses, big league.”
2. The Bank of Mexico hiked rates by 50 basis points to 6.25% in its latest interest-rate decision. In the accompanying statement, the bank noted that emerging markets were facing greater uncertainty regarding fiscal, commercial, and migration policies under consideration by the new US administration.
3. Airline stocks rallied after Trump promised to fix the "out of whack" air traffic control system. American Airlines was up by over 3%, Southwest was up by 2.7%, JetBlue was up by 3.6%, United Continental was up by 1.7%, and Delta was up by 2.9%.
4. Twitter's stock tanked after the company warned its revenue growth would continue to "lag" its recent spike in users. Its stock was down by 10.6% in premarket trading on Thursday.
5. Bitcoin tanked after Chinese exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The cryptocurrency was down by 9.6% around 9:30 a.m. ET. Thursday's announcements are notable because nearly 100% of all bitcoin transactions take place on Chinese exchanges.
6. New York City landlords have never been this aggressive about filling up vacant apartments. In January, concessions like a month of free rent and brand-new appliances rose to a record high in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to the real-estate appraiser Douglas Elliman. Concessions hit new highs for a fourth straight month, and the share of new leases with such giveaways was above 30% for the first time.
7. Yum Brands whiffed on sales as fewer people eat at Pizza Hut. Yum Brands Inc, the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly sales at established restaurants worldwide as fewer diners ate at its Pizza Hut chain.
8. Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell. Claims, which provide a weekly count of the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time, fell to 234,000. Moreover, the four-week moving average came in at 244,250, which is the lowest level since November 3, 1973 when it was 244,000.
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