Dow futures are little changed after blue-chip average touches 40,000 for first time: Live updates

A hearing for a petition seeking the liquidation of debt-laden Chinese property firm Country Garden Holdings was adjourned by a Hong Kong court to June 11, according to Reuters.  

The troubled real estate company received a liquidation petition filed by one of its creditors in late February.

It had received a “winding-up” petition dated Feb. 27 filed by Ever Credit Limited for the non-payment of a loan worth 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($204.4 million).

Country Garden said in early April that trading in its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was suspended.

— Shreyashi Sanyal, Reuters

China’s April retail sales and fixed asset investment missed market expectations, while industrial production grew more than expected compared to the same period last year.

Retail sales rose by 2.3% in April from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That was less than the 3.8% increase forecast in a Reuters poll, and slower than the 3.1% pace reported in March.

Industrial production rose by 6.7% in April from a year ago, beating expectations for 5.5% growth, also substantially higher than 4.5% in March.

Fixed asset investment rose by 4.2% for the first four months of the year, missing estimates of a 4.6% increase.

Read the full story here.

—Evelyn Cheng

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told parliament that the central bank has no immediate plans to sell its ETF holdings, according to Reuters.

“We must spend some time in deciding what to do with our ETF holdings, including whether to unload them in the future,” Ueda said.

In March, the BOJ dismantled its yield curve control policy and stopped its purchases of ETFs and Japanese REITs.

The BOJ has cumulative ETFs of 37.15 trillion yen ($238.92 billion), with an estimated market value of 71.3 trillion yen, according to financial information services website QUICK’s March report.

— Lim Hui Jie

Doximity climbed more than 14% in extended trading after the platform for medical professionals exceeded Wall Street’s earnings expectations and announced a stock repurchase.

The company came in ahead of even the most bullish analysts polled by FactSet for both adjusted earnings per share and revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter. Doximity offered slightly stronger-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter — coming in at $119.5 million to $120.5 million, versus consensus estimates of $118.9 million. However, its outlook for full-year performance on the measure was soft.

The San Francisco-based company also said it would buy back up to $500 million of its Class A stock.

— Alex Harring

Investors are keenly aware of certain market risks, such as a potential recession and consumer stress, but may find themselves blindsided by others, according to Barclays strategist Venu Krishna.

“We think stagflation (while unlikely) has the potential to catch equity markets unaware because some traditionally defensive plays would be exactly what you don’t want to own in such a scenario,” the strategist wrote in a Thursday note.

Krishna added that tight risk premiums also indicate that investors haven’t fully priced in potential geopolitical risks.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Despite Thursday’s retreat, the three major averages are tracking to end the week with gains.

The Nasdaq Composite has led the indexes up this week with a jump of 2.2%. The S&P 500 has added 1.4%, while the Dow has risen 0.9%.

— Alex Harring

Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer for global fixed income and head of global allocation, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that there are signs that the lower-end consumer in the U.S. is struggling. That could be a major factor in pushing the Federal Reserve to cut rates, Rieder said.

“It’s very clear you’re putting pressure on low income. I think they’d like to get a couple of cuts in this year. Could they get it in July? I’d say there’s a 25% chance you could start moving in high. I think the base case is you start moving in September,” Rieder said.

Those projections are roughly in line with market expectations, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Rieder also said he believes equities can continue to set new record highs, citing the strength of earnings and demand for stocks, including share buybacks from major tech companies.

— Jesse Pound

Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

— Alex Harring