Nasdaq notches 5th straight gain, Amazon hits record

President Trump says the U.S. is making thousands of ventilators a week, argues the $670+ billion he approved for the Paycheck Protection Program has been a huge success for small businesses and how they have processed more than $4.6 billion in small-business loans. He also discusses how the V-shaped economic recovery might be more of an 'I-shape' recovery.

U.S. equity markets ended the session mixed on Thursday after a weekly report showed job losses since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have reached 46 million.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	19003.651134	+31.23	+0.16%
AMZN	AMAZON.COM INC.	197.12	-1.26	-0.64%

Even so, the Nasdaq managed to notch a fifth straight day of gains helped by the likes of Amazon which hit a fresh record. The stock has gained over 43 percent this year.

Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management CEO Phil Blancato gives his investing tips and recommends being in both value and growth stocks.

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Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39.51 points or 0.15 percent, and the S&P 500 was little changed.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	44296.51	+426.16	+0.97%
SP500	S&P 500	5969.34	+20.63	+0.35%

Stocks curbed earlier losses after President Trump delivered some optimistic comments during the final hour of trading on the pace of the economic recovery, helping ease disappointing unemployment figures.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended June 13 totaled 1.51 million, the Labor Department said Thursday, raising the total number of job losses to about 46 million since stay-at-home orders were issued in March. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting 1.3 million claims.

Looking at stocks, cruise operator Carnival Corp. reported a preliminary second-quarter loss of $4.4 billion and said it expects to burn $650 million a month during the second half of the year as the pandemic keeps ships docked.

Grocery-store chain Kroger reported earnings and revenue that outpaced expectations as digital sales soared 92 percent year-over-year.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
CCL	CARNIVAL CORP.	24.88	-0.46	-1.82%
KR	THE KROGER CO.	59.23	+0.68	+1.15%

Tesla flirted with a close above $1,000 a share for just the second time on record after Jefferies raised its price target to $1,200, saying the electric vehicle is extending its lead over competitors.

Embattled rental-car company Hertz pulled the plug on its plan to issue $500 million of stock. Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 22.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	352.56	+12.92	+3.80%
HTZ	HERTZ GLOBAL	4.07	+0.18	+4.76%

Spotify and Kim Kardashian West have reached a deal for a podcast about the socialite’s work with the nonprofit legal organization Innocence Project, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gunmaker Smith & Wesson gained ahead of the release of its quarterly results, which was expected after the closing bell.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
SPOT	SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA	475.31	+4.44	+0.94%
SWBI	SMITH & WESSON BRANDS	13.37	+0.12	+0.91%

On the commodities front, West Texas Intermediate crude was higher by 2.32 percent $38.84 a barrel while gold dropped $4.40 to $1,724.80 an ounce.

U.S. Treasurys gained, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 0.693 percent.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE dropped 0.47 percent after the Bank of England increased its bond-buying program by 16 percent to 745 billion British pounds. France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were also weaker, trading down 0.75 percent and 0.81 percent, respectively.

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Markets ended mixed in Asia, with China’s Shanghai Composite edging up 0.12 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei slid 0.07 percent and 0.45 percent, respectively.