Stock market live updates: Stocks down across the board, Facebook new highs again, Best Buy drops

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The Nasdaq is now the relative underpeformer among the three major indexes, falling 0.6% as some of the megacap tech stocks gave up earlier gains to trade below the flat line. Facebook was still trading 2.3% higher, however. The S&P 500 was down 0.3%, while the Dow was roughly flat. –Pound

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. improved in May but remains muted amid lackluster demand that has led to steep job cuts, according to a closely watched gauge. The IHS Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing PMI Index registered a 39.8 reading for the month, up from 36.1 in April and a shade better than the 39 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected. Anything lower than a 50 represents a contraction for the index, which measures businesses seeing expansion vs. contraction.

“Encouragement comes from the survey indicating that the rate of economic collapse seems to have peaked in April. In the absence of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the decline should moderate further in coming months as measures taken to contain the coronavirus are steadily lifted,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at HIS Markit.

Williamson added, though, that “a full recovery is unlikely to be swift.” The services index was 36.9, better than the 30 estimate. The composite reading was 36.4. The numbers are consistent with a Q2 GDP drop of 37%, Williamson said. -Cox

• Stifel upgraded Lowe’s to buy from hold.
• RBC initiated Boeing as outperform.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Avis Budget to equal weight from underweight.
• Credit Suisse initiated Royal Caribbean and Norwegian as outperform.
• Bank of America downgraded MGM to underperform from neutral.
• Citi raised its price target on Netflix to $450 from $350.
• Bank of America downgraded Charles Schwab to neutral from buy.
• UBS downgraded Square to sell from neutral.
• Credit Suisse reinstated Nvidia as outperform.

Pro subscribers can read more here. –Bloom

Later this morning the NYSE’s first all-virtual IPO will take place, when SelectQuote opens for trading. The company, which focuses on insurance products, raised $570 million after pricing at $20 per share, above the range of $17 to $19. The company is now valued at $3.25 billion, according to Reuters. Shares will trade under the ticker SLQT.

SelectQuote CEO Tim Danker will be on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” at 11 am ET to discuss the company’s IPO. – Stevens

A few minutes after the opening bell, stocks reversed losses and turned positive. The Dow was up about 50 points, while the S&P 500 rose 0.11%. The Nasdaq was the relative outperformer, last trading 0.2% higher. – Stevens

Stocks started Thursday’s session modestly lower, as some of Wednesday’s optimism cooled. The Dow fell 42 points for a loss of 0.15%, while the S&P 500 shed 0.007%. The Nasdaq traded slightly higher. Weekly jobless claims totaled 2.4 million, which was still very high by historical standards, but marked the seventh straight week of a slowdown in the number of people filing for unemployment insurance. The number peaked at 6.9 million in late March. – Stevens

Oil prices moved higher on Thursday, accelerating recent gains as the Street continues to cheer growing demand as more and more producers cut output. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, gained 80 cents, or 2.4%, to trade at $34.33 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude rose $1.01 to $36.76 per barrel. Oil is on track for its fourth straight week of gains, although WTI is still roughly 50% below its January high of $65.65. “Oil prices rose on very clear indications that the global supply has been curtailed to a great degree,” Rystad Energy’s Paola Rodriguez Masiu said Thursday. “Many producers have curtailed production and, although painful for them, it really did have an effect on prices,” she added. – Stevens

The May reading for the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey index came in at -43.1, a 13-point improvement from April’s record low but still the third straight negative reading. However, as Renaissance Macro pointed out on Twitter, the survey shows that managers expect the dip to be short-lived, with six-month expectations at their highest level in more than two years. — Pound

Tensions between the U.S. and China escalated again recently over issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has been ratcheting up the rhetoric on China. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump blasted China over the handling of the coronavirus in a tweet, saying that it was the “incompetence of China” that caused “this mass Worldwide killing.” Meanwhile, the Senate passed legislation that could ban many Chinese companies including Alibaba and Baidu from listing on U.S. exchanges. The bill would require companies to certify that they are not controlled by a foreign government. – Li

Initial jobless claims rose 2.438 million, compared with the 2.4 million analysts had been expecting. This represents the seventh straight week of a slowing pace following the peak of 6.9 million claims in late March. Additionally, a review brought the number from last week down substantially, from 2.98 million claims to 2.69 million. – Stevens, Cox

Shares of Best Buy fell 2% in premarket trading after the electronics retailer reported its first quarter results. The company beat Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines, but it did not give future guidance. Comparable sales were down 5.3%, even though online sales in the United States increased by 155%. Sales of consumer electronics fell by more than 15%. — Pound

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows global coronavirus cases have topped 5 million. That grim milestone comes as several countries have started to ease lockdown measures. In the U.S. specifically, more than 1.5 million cases have been confirmed. Most of the worldwide new cases come from the Americas, with over 45,000 cases reported Tuesday in the U.S. — Imbert

Another 2.4 million Americans were expected to file claims for unemployment insurance last week, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones. If accurate, that would bring the rolling nine-week total during the coronavirus pandemic to close to 39 million. The numbers have been steadily declining in recent weeks but still reflect what likely will be the worst unemployment crisis in U.S. history. – Cox

U.S. stock index futures pointed to slight losses at the open on Thursday, as the market awaits jobless claims data at 8:30 am ET. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to decline about 75 points at the opening bell, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 was also poised for a 0.3% loss, while the Nasdaq Composite was set to slide 0.2%. The move lower continues stocks’ push-and-pull this week, which saw markets jump on Monday, drop on Tuesday, and rise again on Wednesday. The S&P rose to its highest level since early March during Wednesday’s trading session as investors continue to cheer economies reopening. The benchmark index is now about 12% below its record high from Feb. 19. – Stevens

– CNBC’s Yun Li, Nate Rattner and Jeff Cox contributed reporting.

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