EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500 -0.38%(2,381.73); NASDAQ -0.61% (6,083.70); DJIA -0.44% (20,804.84)

This week’s reports:

May’s NY Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to -1 from April’s +5.2.
May’s Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey rose to 38.8 from April’s +22.
March’s Business Inventories remained unchanged from February’s downwardly revised +0.2%.
April’s Industrial Production rose 1% from March’s downwardly revised 0.4% change. Capacity Utilization rose to 76.1% from March’s +76.7%.
April’s Housing Starts fell to 1.172M from March’s downwardly revised 1.203M. Building Permits fell to 1.229M from March’s 1.260M.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending May 12th fell by 4K to +232K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending May 5th fell by 22K to 1,898K.

Stocks rebounded after a series of allegations involving Trump’s administration turned investors cautious and sent shares to their worst drop since September on Wednesday. On Thursday US stocks climbed, paring more of Wednesday’s loss as investors assess the political scrutiny surrounding President Donald Trump.
The S&P 500 Index cut its gain by almost half after news emerged that investigators are focusing on a current White House official as a person of interest in their probe of Russian influence on the election, intensifying the political turmoil that’s gripped Washington for weeks.