Stock market today: Wall Street clings to modest gains and marks another winning week
By Damian J. Troise, The Associated Press on February 23, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks clung to modest gains on Wall Street, enough to edge the S&P 500 index to another record high and its sixth winning week in the last seven. Weakness in some technology companies including Apple nudged the Nasdaq composite slightly lower. A pullback by travel-related companies also checked gains elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 inched up by less than 0.1% Friday. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%. Intuitive Machines, the company that made the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years, rose sharply. Treasury yields slipped in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday, but the market is still on track for its sixth winning week in the last seven. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% and is hovering around the record it set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70 points, or 0.2%, to 39,152 as of 3:31 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq fell 0.4%. A pullback by travel-related companies kept gains elsewhere in the market in check. Booking.com tumbled 10.5%, dragging other travel-related companies down. The online travel service beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter sales and profit targets but issued a lukewarm forecast that spooked investors. Competitor Expedia Group fell 1.9%. Technology stocks were also a drag on the market in a reversal from Thursday. The sector has been a driving force of the market’s rally, which started in October. Nvidia, which crossed $2 trillion in market value earlier Thursday, rose 0.2%. A day earlier, it surged after reporting blockbuster demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power AI applications. “Investors are sanguine, with political uncertainty, elevated valuations, and Fed uncertainty not able to dent the momentum in the market,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. Earnings remained the big focus. Ticket seller and concert promoter Live Nation rose 2.2% after beating analyst’s revenue forecasts. Sleep Number, which sells beds and bedding products, surged 36.3% after beating beat Wall Street’s revenue forecasts. On the losing end, Warner Bros. Discovery fell 9.9% after reporting a bigger loss than Wall Street expected. Outside of earnings, Intuitive Machines, the company that made the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years, soared 19.5%. Energy stocks were mostly lower as oil and natural gas prices fell. U.S. crude oil prices slumped 2.7% and natural gas prices fell 7.4%. Treasury yields slipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.26% from 4.33% late Thursday. Markets were mostly higher in Europe and Asia. Tokyo’s markets were closed for a holiday, a day after they surged to an all-time high. Investors have more big earnings to review next week as they try to get a better sense of where the economy is headed. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s and discount retailer Dollar Tree will report results. Computer maker HP and electronics retailer Best Buy will also release results. Analysts polled by FactSet expect companies in the S&P 500 to report earnings growth of just under 4% for the fourth quarter. Roughly 90% of companies in the index have already reported results. Analysts are forecasting earnings growth of 3.6% for the current quarter. Wall Street will also get more economic data that could further clarify how consumers feel and whether inflation is still cooling. Business group The Conference Board will release its consumer confidence survey for February and the government will provide another update on gross domestic product during the fourth quarter. The big focus will be on inflation data from the government’s January report on personal consumption and expenditures. It is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation and is expected to cool to 2.4%. It peaked at 7.1% in June of 2022. The Fed has been trying to tame inflation back to its target of 2% and data last week on consumer and wholesale prices came in hotter than Wall Street expected. That prompted Wall Street to push expectations for the central bank to start cutting its benchmark interest. Traders are now expecting the Fed to cut rates in June instead of March. 20-19
