Hong Kong

Hang Seng

and China

CSI 300

increased by about 0.8% each. the

Stoxx Europe 600 Index

fell 0.3%, on a heavy income day, after a surprise jump in jobless claims in Germany.

Investors were also absorbing Biden’s speech to Congress Wednesday night, where he proposed a sweeping $ 1.8 trillion spending plan for child care, education and paid family leave, to be funded by tax hikes on wealthy Americans. He also said he was not happy with the current unemployment rate of 6%, with the word “jobs” appearing more than 40 times in his prepared text.

The economy remained concentrated on Thursday, with weekly jobless claims falling to 553,000, a new pandemic low. Gross domestic product rose 6.4% in the first quarter, below expectations of 6.5%. Still, bond yields rose to 1.662%.

The names of the technicians were in the driver’s seat, with

Facebook

(ticker: FB) shares soar 7.3% to record territory after the social media giant greatly exceeded Wall Street expectations for profits and revenues. The number of daily and monthly users of the company has also grown faster than expected.

Actions of

Apple

(AAPL) fell 0.075% as second-quarter tax income jumped 54% and earnings hit $ 1.40 per share, crushing Wall Street estimates. The iPhone maker has also boosted share buybacks and increased its dividend.

Actions of

Qualcomm

(QCOM) climbed 4.5% as strong sales of 5G hardware boosted profits and the mobile chip maker forecast another bullish quarter.

But

Ford

(F) shares fell 9.5% despite an upside surprise in earnings as a growing global semiconductor shortage caused the automaker to cut annual profits.

caterpillar

(CAT) slipped 2% after reporting earnings of $ 2.87 per share, beating expectations of $ 1.94 per share, on sales of $ 11.9 billion, ahead of expectations of 10 , $ 9 billion.

Mcdonalds

(ticker: MCD) rose 1.2% after reporting first-quarter profit of $ 1.54 billion, or $ 2.05 per share, from $ 1.47 a year ago.

Truth

(VER) increased by 16% after

Real estate income

(O) said he would acquire the company for $ 11 billion.

Actions of

Norwegian Cruise Line

(NCLH),

Carnival

(CCL), and

Royal Caribbean Group

(RCL) rose 0.26%, 2.1% and 2.9%, respectively. The Center for Disease Control said cruise lines can start sailing this summer, which helped lift all three stocks early. Royal Caribbean also reported a lower than expected loss.

Meanwhile, US-listed stocks of

Nokia

jumped 11%, matching gains overseas as the Finnish telecommunications equipment maker reported better-than-expected results, boosted by 5G growth and stuck to its 2021 and 2023 outlook The company said it was delivering products to customers despite a global chip shortage.

As for the major oil producers, the United Kingdom

Royal Dutch Shell

and from France

Total

both produced good results, increasing the shares of each by more than 1%.

Write to Jacob Sonenshine at [email protected]