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NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. stocks hovered near record highs Tuesday after mixed profit reports.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in afternoon trading. As of 2:19 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.8%.
UPS The company fell 7.1% despite announcing its latest quarterly profit was better than analysts expected. Sales were lower than Wall Street expectations, and the company’s full-year sales forecast for 2024 was also lower than expected.
Whirlpool also fell 5.4% despite reporting better-than-expected profits. The company’s 2024 sales forecast was $16.9 billion, about $1 billion less than analysts expected.
Helping to offset these losses were general motors. Shares soared 8% after the company announced higher-than-expected profits and sales.
In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields were mixed, offsetting earlier losses on reports that the job market may be warmer than economists expected.US employers advertised 9 million Job Information At the end of December, it was slightly above economists’ expectations and slightly above November’s level.
Traders were hoping this data would indicate a cooldown in the number of positions. That would have fit more closely into the trend that has brought Wall Street to record conditions: slowing economic growth just enough to curb inflation but not enough to cause a recession.
Those expectations have sparked excitement about the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut interest rates several times this year. The rate cut marks a sharp reversal from the dramatic hikes of the past two years, and the cut will boost the economy and investment prices.
of Federal Reserve System is starting The latest policy meeting on interest rates is scheduled, and virtually no one expects them to cut this soon. Still, that won’t stop economists and traders from parsing every communication from the Fed after Wednesday’s meeting. The Bank will look for clues about the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in March.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.07% from 4.09% late Monday. It was 4.04% just before the release of another report showing jobs data and consumer confidence rising more than expected.
Two-year Treasury yields, driven largely by expectations of Fed action, rose further. The rate rose to 4.38% from 4.32% late Monday.
After the day’s close, two of Wall Street’s most influential stocks will also report their latest quarterly results.
Microsoft and Alphabet are two of the largest companies in the market by value, so their movements have a large impact on the S&P 500 and other indexes. These, along with five other big tech stocks, have accounted for most of the S&P 500’s wild rise since it bottomed out two years ago.
Expectations are sky high for them and they will need to deliver to justify the huge gains. Microsoft is up about 69% over the past 12 months, while Alphabet is up just over 57%.
On Thursday, three of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech stocks — Apple, Amazon, and Meta Platforms — are scheduled to announce their financial results.
Analysts say companies that have so far reported better-than-expected profits have not generated as much buzz as usual in this report.
JetBlue Airways fell 3.9% despite reporting lighter losses in the final three months of 2023 than analysts expected. The company said it expects revenue to be roughly flat in 2024, but non-fuel cost pressures are likely to rise.
In overseas stock markets, Chinese stock indexes fell, adding to losses on an already difficult start to the year.
Shares of Chinese real estate development companies Evergrande Groupthe world’s most indebted real estate company, remained suspended after a Hong Kong court ordered it to be liquidated.
In Hong Kong, other property companies led the decline, with the Hang Seng Index falling 2.3%. Shanghai stocks fell 1.8%.
China’s regulators are moving to prop up the market amid concerns over a struggling real estate industry and disappointing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
Elsewhere in Asia, stocks were mixed, with modest gains in Europe.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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