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NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. stocks were trading mixed on Friday, with Wall Street hovering near record highs.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in morning trading after hitting a new high the previous day. As of 10:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite had risen 0.4% the previous day, surpassing its all-time record set in 2021.
Bond markets were also calm, with government bond yields relatively stable. A key measure of inflation closely tracked by the Federal Reserve is on track to end the week relatively unchanged after Thursday’s report showed that a key measure of inflation closely tracked last month moved largely as expected. riding on.
Dell Technologies helped support the market with a 26% jump. The company reported profit and revenue for its latest quarter that beat analysts’ expectations, highlighting demand for AI-optimized servers.
Stock prices have soared over the last year as demand for artificial intelligence technology continues to grow with no end in sight. Even Dell’s roughly 140% rise over the past 12 months pales in comparison to Nvidia’s more than 240% rise.
NetApp soared 24% after reporting better-than-expected financial results and saying it was seeing “good momentum in the AI space.” The data firm also provided a forecast range for this quarter’s earnings that beat multiple analyst expectations.
The mood in the banking industry was even darker, with New York Community Bancorp down 21.8%. The company warned investors late Thursday that it had discovered weaknesses in its internal loan review methods due to ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities.
The company accused the company of not filing its annual report in time, adding a $2.4 billion loss to its results for the final three months of 2023. The company’s CEO resigned after 27 years with the company. Immediately effective.
After several banks failed during last year’s industry crisis, much attention has been focused on small and medium-sized regional banks. One of those banks, Signature Bank, was absorbed into NYCB, resulting in the bank facing increased scrutiny in the race for real estate loans.
While NYCB faces many unique challenges, there is concern that banks across the industry are facing challenges from lending for real estate projects.
Interest rates have been high since the US Federal Reserve raised its key policy rate to the highest level since 2001, increasing pressure on the financial system. There was hope that the Fed would cut interest rates several times this year to relieve some of that pressure.
The Fed has indicated it may do so if inflation continues to cool decisively toward its 2% target. But a series of better-than-expected economic reports are forcing Wall Street traders to postpone their predictions for when interest rates will begin to cut. The current hope is that the Fed could start in June, after Wall Street has circled March on its calendar as early as this month.
Those hopes came after a report showed U.S. manufacturing contracted for the 16th straight month in February. Manufacturing is one of the worst-performing sectors of the economy, but a resilient job market and spending by U.S. consumers are supporting the economy. The Institute for Supply Management’s report also said prices paid by manufacturers for raw materials rose again, but at a slower pace than in January.
A separate report from the University of Michigan found that U.S. consumer sentiment fell slightly in February compared to January, but maintained most of the gains seen in recent months. This is important because spending by U.S. consumers makes up a large portion of the economy.
In the bond market, US bond yields fell in response to the statistical report. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.22% from 4.25% late Thursday and 4.28% just before the data was released.
In overseas stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.9%. The unemployment rate fell to 2.4% in January, although indicators of manufacturing activity showed a contraction.
In the rest of Asia and Europe, the index rose more slowly.
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Associated Press writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
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