Stocks Opened Lower and Turned Higher after Banks Earnings

U.S. stocks opened lower and turned higher on Thursday in the wake of a trio of banks quarterly results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 1.70 points, or 0.01%, to 20,593.56. The S&P 500 was up 0.67 point, or 0.03%, to 2,345.60. The Nasdaq Composite gained 10.77 points, or 0.18%, to 5,846.93.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said its first-quarter profit rose 17% as a boost from trading helped results for the nation’s biggest bank by assets. Earnings and revenue beat expectations. It reported a profit of $6.45 billion, or $1.65 a share. That compared with a profit of $5.52 billion, or $1.35 a share, in the same period of 2016. Adjusted revenue rose 6.2% to $25.59 billion.

Citigroup Inc. said its first-quarter profit rose 17% as its trading desk continued to be boosted by companies and investors preparing for rising interest rates. Quarterly profit increased to $4.09 billion from $3.50 billion a year earlier. Revenue was $18.12 billion, up from $17.56 billion a year ago.

Wells Fargo & Co. said its first-quarter profit was flat as the nation’s third-largest bank remains stuck in the spotlight for its sales practices scandal more than six months later. The bank reported a profit of $5.46 billion, or $1 a share. That compares with $5.46 billion, or 99 cents a share, in the same period of 2016. Revenue slipped to $22 billion. Analysts had expected $22.32 billion.

Initial jobless claims were essentially unchanged at 234,000 in early April, holding near extremely low levels that show the U.S. labor market is going strong despite a slowdown in hiring last month.

U.S. inflation at the wholesale level fell in March for the first time in seven months, owing to lower costs for services such as investment advice as well as cheaper fuel for cars and homes. The producer price index slipped 0.1% last month to mark the first decline since August, the government said Thursday.

Global oil inventories probably increased in the first quarter despite OPEC’s near-perfect implementation of production cuts aimed at clearing the surplus, the International Energy Agency said. Oil inventories in the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development increased by 38.5 million barrels in the first quarter to about 3 billion barrels, offsetting the decline in emerging economies.