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Wall Street has set ambitious price targets for the stocks in this article. While this suggests attractive upside potential, it’s important to remain skeptical because analysts face institutional pressures that can sometimes lead to overly optimistic forecasts.

Shares of Eli Lilly jumped 16% Thursday morning after the pharmaceutical company released clinical trial results for its oral weight-loss drug that "demonstrated statistically significant efficacy results and a safety profile consistent with injectable GLP-1 medicines."

U.S. applications for jobless benefits fell again last week as the labor market continues to hold up despite fears of a tariff-induced recession. Jobless claim applications fell by 9,000 to 215,000 for the week ending April 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly stayed between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell to a two-month low last week, suggesting labor market conditions remained stable in April, though uncertainty around tariffs is making businesses hesitant to boost hiring. President Donald Trump's import duties are putting pressure on the housing market, with other data on Thursday showing single-family housing starts plunging to an eight-month low in March, which underscored economists' expectations that economic growth likely ground to a halt in the first quarter.

News of the day for April 17, 2025

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 350 basis points to 46% on Thursday, in a surprise move that reversed an easing cycle and boosted Turkish assets following market turmoil triggered by the arrest of Istanbul's mayor last month. The policy pivot - just four months after rate cuts had begun - aimed to ease weeks of pressure on the lira that forced the central bank to tap its foreign currency reserves, and to push back on rising inflation expectations, analysts said. Last month, the lira briefly hit a record low of 42 to the U.S. dollar and stocks and bonds plunged after the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, pushing the central bank to take several steps to ease the market fallout.

The economy now faces "heightened downside risks," says Powell.