NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 added to its record as U.S. stock indexes drifted through a quiet, mixed day on Wall Street. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% on Wednesday after setting an all-time high the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite inched up by 0.1%. Elon Musk’s Tesla was one of the strongest forces lifting the market. It helped offset a sharp drop for Celanese after the chemical company warned of weakness in some of its markets. Treasury yields eased a bit. Stock indexes fell in Europe after finishing mixed in Asia.
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NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 is inching higher as U.S. stock indexes drift through a quiet Wednesday on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 was adding 0.3% to the all-time high it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually unchanged, with an hour of trading remaining, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Elon Musk's Tesla was one of the strongest forces lifting the market, and it rose 2.3%. It climbed after another electric-vehicle company, Nikola, plunged 37.5% following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The electric truck maker said it will try to sell off its assets and wind down its business.
A 9.6% rally for Analog Devices also helped push the S&P 500 higher. The semiconductor company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, despite what CEO Vincent Roche called a “challenging macro and geopolitical backdrop.”
They helped offset a 22.8% tumble for Celanese, which dropped even though the chemical company reported profit for the end of 2024 that topped analysts’ expectations. CEO Scott Richardson warned that it saw “demand deterioration that gave no sign of easing” during the last three months of the year, and the company expects weakness to continue for such core markets as automotive, construction and paints.
Toll Brothers, meanwhile, fell 5.7% after the homebuilder reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. said this spring selling season has seen healthy demand so far for homes at the higher end of the price spectrum, but “affordability constraints” are hurting sales at the lower end.
A separate report on Wednesday morning said homebuilders as a group broke ground on fewer U.S. houses last month than economists expected.
High mortgage rates are making it difficult for some potential homebuyers to afford a house, even though the Federal Reserve began cutting its main interest rate in September in order to make things easier for the economy.
Mortgage rates have followed the trend of longer-term Treasury yields, which have remained relatively high in part because the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid and because inflation hasn’t eased as much as hoped. Tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump, along with other policies that could put upward pressure on inflation, have also caused some sharp swings for yields in the bond market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury stayed relatively calm Wednesday and edged down to 4.53% from 4.55% late Tuesday. It was below 3.70% as recently as September and approaching 4.80% within the past few weeks.
Both the bond and the stock markets have increasingly been taking Trump's tariffs in stride, after earlier showing much more trepidation. The hope on Wall Street is that Trump is using such threats merely as a tool to drive negotiations, and the ultimate effects won't be as bad as they initially appeared.
Such a calm response, though, could make things worse if conditions don't go as Wall Street expects, or if it emboldens Trump to make even more forceful actions.
For its part, the Federal Reserve has signaled it may make fewer cuts this year than earlier expected, in part because of worries that inflation will remain stubbornly above its 2% target. Cutting rates can boost the economy and juice prices for investments, but they can also give inflation more fuel.
Minutes released Wednesday for the Fed's last policy meeting in January showed officials discussed how Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, as well as strong consumer spending, could push inflation higher this year
In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% after a report showed U.K. inflation accelerated to a 10-month high. That could put pressure on the Bank of England, which had been cutting interest rates to invigorate its tepid economy.
Indexes fell more than 1% in other European markets, including in France and Germany, after finishing mixed across Asia. South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.7%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Zen Soo contributed.
Stan Choe, The Associated Press
