Stock market today: Live updates

Apple shares dropped more than 3% after the Justice Department sued the iPhone maker in a landmark antitrust case. That decline would be the tech giant’s biggest since Aug. 4, when it fell 4.8%.

— Fred Imbert, Gina Francolla

Apple shares slid 3% after the Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday, saying that its iPhone ecosystem is a monopoly that drove its “astronomical valuation” at the expense of consumers, developers and rival phone makers.

Federal antitrust enforcement and 16 attorneys general also say that Apple’s anti-competitive practices extend beyond the iPhone and Apple Watch businesses, citing Apple’s advertising, browser, FaceTime and news offerings.

“Each step in Apple’s course of conduct built and reinforced the moat around its smartphone monopoly,” the complaint filed in the District of New Jersey said.

— Kif Leswing, Rohan Goswami

Existing home sales posted an unexpected surge in February despite another big jump in prices, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Completed sales of single-family homes, townhouses, condos and co-ops jumped 9.5% from January, countering expectations for a 1.3% decline in the Dow Jones consensus. It was the largest monthly increase since February 2023.

The gains came even as the median sales price rose 5.7% from a year ago to $384,500. Declining interest rates helped soften the slow, with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.74%, down 0.14 percentage point on the month but up the same level from a year ago.

— Jeff Cox

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. hit a 22-month high in March, according to the S&P Global Flash U.S. Composite reading released Thursday.

The index came in at 52.5 for the month, up 0.3 point from February and the highest going back to mid-2022. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 51.8 on a gauge that measures the percent difference between companies reporting expansion versus contraction.

On the services side, the flash PMI was 51.7, a decline of 0.6 point from a month ago and just below the 51.8 estimate.

— Jeff Cox

Micron Technology surged more than 16% before the bell and headed for its best day since December 2011 after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results driven by a boom in demand for artificial intelligence.

The memory chipmaker posted earnings of 42 cents per share, far surpassing the 25 cent loss expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Micron reported revenues of $5.82 billion, ahead of the $5.35 billion expected.

“We believe Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the semiconductor industry of the multi-year opportunity enabled by AI,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a release.

Alongside the top-and-bottom line beat, Micron Technology offered rosy revenue guidance for its fiscal third quarter.

Stocks opened higher on Thursday as Wall Street looked to continue its rally to record highs.

The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.9% The Dow Jones Industrial added 128 points, or 0.35%.

— Samantha Subin

Here are some of the names making moves before the bell:

• Micron — Shares jumped nearly 16.6% after the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations. Micron also guided for higher-than expected third-quarter earnings and revenue.
• Revolve Group — The fashion retailer added 4.5% after getting an upgrade from TD Cowen to outperform from market perform. The firm said it expects Revolve to see a return to growth after a year of markdowns and broad-based softness.
• Astera Labs (ALAB) —The stock gained 5%, one day after debuting on the Nasdaq. Astera, which sells data center connectivity chips to cloud and artificial-intelligence infrastructure companies, soared 72% on its first day trading.

To see more stocks making premarket moves, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area showed unexpected growth in March, according a survey from the regional Federal Reserve released Thursday.

The Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey showed a reading of 3.2, representing the percentage difference between companies reporting expansion against contraction. That was down 2 points from February but ahead of the Dow Jones consensus for a -5 reading.

It was the second straight month for a positive number and only the fifth expansionary level since May 2022.

While most firms reported ongoing inflation pressures, the prices paid index registered its lowest reading since May 2020, down 13 points to 3.7. Employment remained negative at -9.6 while new orders showed growth for the first time since October.

—Jeff Cox

Initial filings for unemployment insurance changed little last week, indicating that companies are still reluctant to let go of workers.

Jobless claims totaled 210,000 for the week ended March 16, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous period’s upwardly revised level, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 213,000.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged up to 1.807 million, an increase of 4,000 and slightly higher than the 1.79 million FactSet estimate.

— Jeff Cox

The Bank of England maintained interest rates at the 5.25% level on Thursday, but suggested that cuts could come in the near future if inflation falls quicker than expected.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to leave rates at their current level. One member voted for a 25 basis point cut to 5%.

— Elliot Smith, Samantha Subin

Five Below shed nearly 12% before the bell after posting quarterly results that fell short of analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

The value retailer reported earnings of $3.65 per share on $1.34 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated earnings of $3.78 per share and revenues totaling $1.35 billion.

The company also offered light revenue and EPS guidance for the first quarter and full year.

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut rates thrice this year, Matt Higgins, CEO and co-founder of RSE Ventures, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia,” in a view at odds with Fed signals and market expectations.

No rate cuts were “definitely on the table,” with one cut most likely later in the year, he added.

The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it would cut interest rate three times in 2024 while holding them steady at its latest meeting.

“If unemployment does not start to pick up, and you don’t see some more downward pressure on core inflation, I’m not sure there are going to be three rate cuts in the second half of this year,” Higgins said.

– Dylan Butts

Spot gold hit over $2,200 per ounce Thursday, notching a new high after the U.S. Federal Reserve reaffirmed plans for three rate cuts this year. And there’s more room for bullion to rally.

Prices could rise to $2,300 per ounce in the second half of 2024, especially against the backdrop of expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut rates in the second half of 2024, Aakash Doshi, Citi’s North America head of commodities research, told CNBC.

State Street’s APAC Gold Strategist Robin Tsui wrote in a March 21 note that he anticipates gold could hit $2,400 per ounce once the Fed starts to pivot.

—Lee Ying Shan

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index hit a new record on Wednesday, rising as much as 40,642.89 and surpassing its all-time closing high of 40,109.23.

The rally was powered by consumer cyclicals and industrial stocks, and also came on the back an improved business sentiment in Japan, as well as better exports data for February.

The top gainer on the index was semiconductor firm Sumco Corp which gained 5.42%, followed by financial technology firm Rakuten Group, which was up 3.65%.

New Zealand slipped into a technical recession last year as the country’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the quarter before.

This was a surprise contraction as economists polled by Reuters had expected 0.1% growth.

The contraction followed a 0.3% fall in GDP in the quarter ending September 2023, which meant that the country has experienced two successive quarters of contraction — the commonly accepted definition of a technical recession.

On a year-on-year basis, GDP in New Zealand expanded 0.6%, slowing from the 1.3% growth recorded in the third quarter.

— Lim Hui Jie

The Russell 2000 popped nearly 2% on Wednesday for its best day in more than a month – and Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Tom Lee thinks the small-cap benchmark has even higher to go.

On a relative value basis, small caps are back to where they were in 1999, which was “a launch point for a 12-year outperformance period,” Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, said on CNBC’s “Last Call.”

“I think that means with the Fed doing a dovish pause and CEOs getting more confident, that means M&A and IPOs and people looking at other sectors – I do think the Russell can rise 50% this year,” he said. Indeed, the Federal Reserve held rates steady and kept to its forecast of three rate cuts in 2024 at the conclusion of its March meeting on Wednesday, lifting the major averages to record closes.

An array of factors could boost the Russell 2000 this year, he added, noting that companies that earn money in the small-cap index are trading around 11 times earnings, “a huge PE story, along with a price-to-book story.” The benchmark also has a big biotech weight, and the financial companies within the Russell 2000 are likely to benefit once the Fed begins cutting rates, he said.

“I think the Russell 2000 represents… the best of things that happen when the Fed starts cutting,” Lee said.

–Darla Mercado

Reddit priced its initial public offering at $34 per share.

That number is at the top of the expected range of between $31 and $34. It values the social media company at around $6.5 billion.

Reddit will make its public market debut Thursday under the ticker “RDDT.”

— Alex Harring, Leslie Picker, Jonathan Vanian

It’s not just institutional and individual investors pushing stock prices higher. Last week was huge for corporate buybacks of stock too, Bank of America equity and quantitative strategists including Savita Subramanian said in a note out Tuesday.

Buyback trends are “hitting multi-year highs,” BofA noted, with those conducted by the bank’s own corporate clients reaching the third highest weekly level ever in data going back to 2010.

The pace of repurchases is also “tracking above the typical seasonal levels at this time” of year for a second straight week, the strategists wrote. So far in 2024, buybacks as a percentage of the entire S&P 500 market capitalization have totaled 0.34% versus the 2023 high at the same time of year at 0.29%.

Buybacks over the past 52 weeks as a percentage of total market value are the highest since August 2020, during the first Covid pandemic summer, according to BofA.

— Scott Schnipper

With more than half of the trading week in the rearview mirror, the three major indexes are on track for gains.

The Nasdaq Composite has led the three higher this week, adding 2.5%. The Dow and S&P 500 were each up about 2.1%.

— Alex Harring

The big technology rally may be on “borrowed time,” according to UBS.

Strategist Jonathan Golub said the advances to Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia could be short-lived. While valuations are not an issue in this case, he said an end to these major gains for the “Big 6” stocks is becoming a question of when, not if.

“With earnings momentum rapidly decelerating for the Big 6, and the broader market trend improving, continued outperformance of these stocks—and the narrowness of market returns that it implies—becomes increasingly difficult,” Golub wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. “While upward revisions are currently supporting these companies, the deceleration in future profits cannot be ignored.”

Golub’s call comes amid a year of strength for the sector, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite up more than 9%.

— Alex Harring

These are some of the stocks posting notable moves in extended trading:

• Micron Technology — Shares popped 13% after the semiconductor company beat expectations on revenue and gave strong guidance for the measure. The company also posted earnings per share despite analysts forecasting a loss.
• Five Below — The value retailer tumbled 13% on weak fourth-quarter earnings and outlook for the current quarter and full year.

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures traded modestly higher shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

Dow futures added 0.1%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

— Alex Harring