Stock market today: Nasdaq sets another record as Wall Street wins back earlier losses
By Stan Choe, The Associated Press on May 24, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. stocks rose in a bounce back from Wall Street’s worst day since April. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to win back all its losses from earlier in the week. It eked out a fifth straight winning week and is just shy of its record set on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.1% to top its all-time high set earlier this week. Nvidia climbed again following its blowout profit report earlier this week to help push the market higher. Treasury yields were stable after a better-than-expected report on consumer sentiment. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) – Most U.S. stocks are rising on Friday in a bounce back from Wall Street’s worst day since April. The S&P 500 was up 0.6% in afternoon trading, erasing most of its losses for the week. It has gained ground the last four weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was mostly unchanged as of 2:59 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher. Deckers Outdoors jumped 13.3% for one of the market’s biggest gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. The company behind the Hoka, Ugg and Teva brands also gave a forecast for revenue this upcoming fiscal year that was in line with analysts’ expectations. Ross Stores was also leading the market with a leap of 8.2% after the retailer reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That was despite its revenue only edging past expectations, as customers continue to hold back on purchases of non-essentials. CEO Barbara Rentler said several challenges, “including prolonged inflation, continue to squeeze our low-to-moderate income customers’ purchasing power.” Even though data on the overall, or macro, economy has been showing continued strength for spending by U.S. households, the numbers underneath the surface may not be as encouraging. “Walmart and Target are telling us that high income consumers are doing fine, but beginning to trade down,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “The lower income consumer is struggling. Macro often focuses too much on the average and the average is skewed by the high-end household.” The market got a bit of a boost Friday from a report showing sentiment among U.S. consumers overall weakened by less in May than preliminary data had suggested. Perhaps more importantly, the report from the University of Michigan also said U.S. consumers’ expectations for inflation in the coming year rose by less in May than earlier feared. Worries about stubbornly high inflation have pulled the U.S. stock market back from its records set recently. The weakness began after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday released the minutes from its last policy meeting, which showed some officials talking about the possibility of raising rates if inflation worsens. Stocks fell further after reports on Thursday indicated the U.S. economy is stronger than expected. Such strength can actually spook Wall Street because it could keep upward pressure on inflation. That in turn could at least delay the Federal Reserve from giving relief to financial markets by cutting its main interest rate, which is sitting at the highest level in more than 20 years. Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle pushed back his forecast for the Fed’s first cut to rates to September from July, in part due to Thursday’s reports on U.S. business activity and joblessness. Treasury yields climbed this week on such concerns, but they were mixed Friday following the report on consumer sentiment. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.47% from 4.48% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed, rose to 4.95% from 4.94%. This week’s bumpiness for stocks came despite another blowout profit report from Nvidia, which has rocketed to become one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Fervor around AI had pushed some stocks to heights that critics called overdone, but Nvidia’s eye-popping growth and forecasts for more suggest it could keep going. Elsewhere on Wall Street Friday, Workday fell 15.4% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which helps businesses manage their people and money, gave a forecast for upcoming subscription revenue that fell a bit short of Wall Street’s estimates. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Asia and Europe. They sank 1.4% in Hong Kong, 1.3% in Seoul and 1.2% in Tokyo. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. 20-19
