Twitter surges on Wall St

World shares were mostly higher Thursday after China indicated its central bank will ease reserve requirements for lenders to counter the blow to its economy from pandemic shutdowns in big cities like Shanghai

New York: Dow Jones and S&P-500, Wall Street's main indices, edged higher in early trade on Thursday, following mixed earnings from a slew of banks on the last day of a holiday-shortened week. Twitter shares jumped after billionaire Elon Musk's takeover offer. Twitter Inc stock rose 1.88 per cent to $46.72 on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday after the buying offer made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63.9 points, or 0.18%, was hovering at 34628.46 points. The S&P-500 gained 2.5 points or 0.06%, to 4449.12 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 3.8 points, or 0.03%, to 13647.425 in early session.

Stocks are mixed at the open on Wall Street Thursday as investors again turn their attention to the drama surrounding Elon Musk and Twitter.

Musk offered to buy the social media company for $54.20 a share, two weeks after revealing he'd accumulated a 9% stake. Twitter rose 2.2% to $46.87 in early trading. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% while the Nasdaq fell 0.4%. The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.5% in March, boosted by higher prices for gasoline, as consumers continue to spend despite high inflation. The price of oil fell more than 1%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.74% from 2.72%. World shares were mostly higher Thursday after China indicated its central bank will ease reserve requirements for lenders to counter the blow to its economy from pandemic shutdowns in big cities like Shanghai. London slipped while Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Shanghai gained. U.S. futures were mixed and oil prices fell. Trading was relatively quiet with some Asian markets closed for holidays. Markets in the U.S. and Europe face a shortened week and will be closed on Friday for Good Friday holidays. Chinese state media reported that Premier Li Keqiang emphasized the need to step up financial support for the economy at a State Council meeting on Wednesday. Officials at the meeting agreed to "use monetary policy tools like reserve requirement ratio cuts at an appropriate time" the official Xinhua News Agency reported. "The outlook remains highly uncertain, but there are signs that the virus situation is starting to improve and that the focus of officials is shifting toward helping the economy get back on its feet," Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a note.

Germany's DAX edged 0.1% higher to 14,090.92 while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.5% to 6,572.30. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to 7,576.54. The future for the Dow industrials was nearly unchanged, while that for the S&P 500 was 0.1% higher.