On a busy earnings day, stocks were mostly higher Thursday with dip buying boosting megacaps. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 firmed by 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq was up 0.8 percent. Bond yields, the dollar and oil prices declined.

Tesla rallied to account for a chunk of the S&P's gain after a big earnings beat. Amazon was a big advancer to boost consumer discretionary shares. Other S&P winners on earnings news included CBRE Group, Molina Healthcare and Pool. On the downside, disappointing results from IBM and Honeywell plus bad labor news hit Boeing to depress the Dow. Other stocks hit by quarterly results included Union Pacific, United Rentals and Harley Davidson.

US bond yields corrected lower after several days of gains, which supported equities. US yields came off their lows in the morning after an unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims. The decline in jobless claims suggested the labor market remains buoyant and the surprising uptick in claims was only noise from strike and hurricane activity.

Market Reflections track market reaction to the trading day's major events. Economic data, policymaker speeches, and company news are featured in this report as well as key indexes and financial instruments.

Understanding why markets respond as they do is fundamental for an investor. Market Reflections help explain how the day's events, news, and data impact the outlook for the economy and for market prices.