Morning Report: US sharemarkets rose on Thursday

Investors weighed up mixed corporate earnings results and similarly mixed economic data. Lower bond yields served to push bank shares lower. But technology shares were favoured ahead of the release of earnings from ‘mega tech’ companies in the coming week. Shares in Microsoft rose by 1.7% and shares in Amazon rose by 1.5%. The Dow Jones rose by 25 points or 0.1%. The S&P 500 index rose by 0.2%. And the Nasdaq gained 53 points or 0.4%.