Source : the age
Stocks meandered to a mixed finish on Wall Street and remained close to their records, while oil prices held steady.
The uncertain trading on Wall Street followed two days of big gains that gave the week and August a strong start. Several big technology companies slumped, though, ultimately weighing down the market.
The S&P 500 fell 12.97 points, or 0.2 per cent, to close at 7,723.55. The index spent most of the day higher after surging to a record on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 263.24 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 54,349.12, reaching another record. The Australian sharemarket is set to edge lower, with futures pointing to a dip of 6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.9 per cent on Wednesday to close at a record high. The Australian dollar was stronger at US70.60¢.
“The coiled spring investors have been waiting for has finally released, with the S&P 500 Index surging to record highs for the first time in two months,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, in a report.
The Nasdaq fell 221.55 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 26,363.44. The index was weighed down by big technology companies losing ground, including a 4 per cent drop for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and a 1.1 per cent drop for Microsoft.
The market has been generally rising as companies head into the closing stretch of their latest round of earnings reports with sharp overall gains. Three-quarters of the companies within the S&P 500 have reported results so far, and Wall Street expects profit growth of 50 per cent when they are all finished.
The Walt Disney Co. rose 3.6 per cent after easily beating Wall Street’s profit forecasts, helped by a $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) box office haul from Toy Story 5 and theme park revenue.
Booking Holdings jumped 6.6 per cent after reporting that strong travel demand drove profit and revenue growth during its most recent quarter.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX fell 13.6 per cent following the release late of its first quarterly report as a public company, which showed that it sharply boosted spending on artificial intelligence. The company did help give semiconductor giant Nvidia a 3.4 per cent boost after announcing it would exclusively use that company’s chips for its artificial intelligence technology.
That announcement weighed on Advanced Micro Devices, which fell 7 per cent. Musk had previously said that SpaceX and his electric vehicle company, Tesla, would use chips from both Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia.
Treasury yields slipped in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.61 per cent from 4.63 per cent from late Tuesday.
European markets were mixed.
Strong corporate profits and expectations for more growth ahead have been steering stocks higher. Wall Street has also been worried about stock prices becoming unjustifiably high, especially within the technology sector and for companies focused on artificial intelligence. Profit growth, especially for some of the big chipmakers, like Nvidia, could help justify some of the big investments those companies are making in AI.
AI-focused companies, with their big market values, have been behind many of the big market swings and most of Wall Street’s gains.
“The market appears to be moving from rewarding companies for AI spending to assessing the revenue and earnings that these investments can generate,” said Brian Therien, analyst, investment strategy, at Edward Jones, in a report.
Uncertainty about the direction of the US war with Iran continues hanging over the market. President Donald Trump said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday. But there have been many stops and starts during the five-month old conflict that has stifled the global supply of oil and rattled energy markets.
The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.1 per cent to $79.45 a barrel. Oil prices have been swinging for months and were as high as $102 per barrel at one point during the conflict, jolting already stubbornly high inflation. Higher oil prices pushed gasoline prices higher and increased shipping costs for a wide range of products.
Inflation concerns have been hanging over markets and the Federal Reserve. The central bank has been holding its key benchmark rate steady as it monitors the costs and the impact on the economy. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise rates at least once before the end of 2026. Household spending remains resilient, despite the stress from higher costs on everything from gas to groceries.
The jobs market has been one of the stronger areas of the economy, though growth has been slowing. Wall Street will get another update on Friday with the monthly employment report for July.
AP
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