Stocks steady as booming first-quarter comes to close

Live3 updates

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  Thu, March 28, 2024 at 1:33 PM GMT

  Stocks steady on last trading day of month and quarter

  Stocks held steady at the open on Thursday morning as markets were set to round out their best quarter first quarter in five years.

  The S&P 500 (^GSPC), the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) all hovered around the flatline at the start of the last trading session of the month. With markets closed for the Good Friday holiday, Thursday will mark the final trading session of the quarter too.

  The S&P and Nasdaq are up roughly 10% since the start of 2024.

  A final reading on fourth-quarter GDP released on Thursday morning showed the economy grew at a rate of 3.4% versus a prior estimate of 3.2%. On the employment front, initial jobless claims for last week came in at 210,000, versus estimates for 212,000.

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  Thu, March 28, 2024 at 1:13 PM GMT

  Energy sector outperforms in March in signs of broadening rally

  March has been a solid month for the S&P 500 (^GSPC) — and an even better one for oil- and gas-related stocks.

  As the month draws to a close, energy has emerged as the top-performing sector. The S&P 500 Energy Select ETF (XLE), which includes oil giants like ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), and ConocoPhillips (COP), has gained more than 9% compared to the benchmark index’s rise of nearly 3% in the same period.

  Read more here:

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  Thu, March 28, 2024 at 11:49 AM GMT

  Behind the scenes with General Motors CEO Mary Barra

  Yahoo Finance just dropped its latest Lead This Way episode, this with General Motors (GM) long-time chair and CEO Mary Barra. Full watch here.

  It was really a great treat for me to spend a day with Barra touring an EV manufacturing facility in Detroit. The complexity of making electric vehicles at scale is something I don’t think most auto investors appreciate (which explains why Fisker is probably going out of business and Lucid just needed a capital infusion) – I know I didn’t fully grasp it.

  A couple of takeaways from my time with Mary:

  • It’s not easy for a legacy automaker to suddenly make lots of electric cars! In part, this is why the Big 3 has been under-earning during the EV transition the past few years.

  • It’s worthwhile to spend some time on Yahoo Finance and study the valuation on GM. You can do that here. A basic numbers crunch suggests the stock is simply too cheap, provided more EV curveballs aren’t thrown the way of the auto industry.

  • Mary Barra remains the right leader for this pivotal time for GM. I don’t envision her leaving anytime soon, and that’s a good thing.