Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Drifts Higher Toward a Record

Business

By Associated Press

Published 2 months ago on

January 23, 2025

American flags, left, hang from the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP File)

U.S. stocks hover near record highs, with S&P 500 up 0.3% and Dow Jones climbing 349 points in quiet trading.
Treasury yields rise after Trump discusses tariffs at the World Economic Forum, though crude prices ease by nearly 1%.
GE Aerospace surges 6.8% on strong profit report, while American Airlines drops 7.9% due to weak future projections.

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NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting around a record on Thursday amid a relatively quiet day on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading and on track to surpass its all-time high set early last month after coming close the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 349 points, or 0.8%, as of 1:33 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was edging 0.1% lower.

The calm trading came amid relatively modest moves for Treasury yields in the U.S. bond market. Big swings there in recent months have been shaking the stock market, particularly when rising worries about inflation and the U.S. government’s heavy debt have sent Treasury yields higher.

Treasury Yields Turn Higher After Trump Talks on Tariffs

Treasury yields took another turn higher after President Donald Trump began talking about the prospect of tariffs at the World Economic Forum, saying products made outside of the United States will be subject to a tariff, but they quickly eased after he gave few details. Crude prices also eased by nearly 1% after Trump called on oil-producing countries to reduce the price of crude.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.65% from 4.61% late Wednesday, though it remains below its high from earlier this month. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed’s action, eased to 4.29% from 4.30% late Wednesday.

Yields earlier in the day had also held relatively steady after a report showed slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. While the numbers were an increase, “they were well within the modest range established in recent months,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. “Employment continues to highlight US economic outperformance.”

Traders don’t expect the report to push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate at its upcoming meeting next week, according to data from CME Group. If they’re correct, it would be the first time the Fed hasn’t lowered the federal funds rate since it began doing so in September to ease pressure off the U.S. economy. Lower rates can goose prices for investments, but they can also give inflation more fuel.

GE Aerospace Grows 6.8% Higher

On Wall Street, GE Aerospace flew 6.8% higher after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which split off from General Electric with two other companies last year, said orders for its airplane engines and services jumped 50% from a year earlier to $12.9 billion.

Netflix was another one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. It rose another 2.2% after jumping 9.7% the day before following a better-than-expected profit report.

Airlines, Video Games Dropped

American Airlines lost 7.9% even though it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it may report a bigger loss for the first three months of 2025 than analysts expected. American also gave a forecasted range for profit over the full year whose midpoint fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Video game maker Electronic Arts dropped 16.5% after it warned of a slowdown in revenue related to its soccer game, EA Sports FC25. It also said fewer gamers played its Dragon Age game during the latest quarter than it expected, further cutting into its revenue.

In stock markets abroad, movements were mostly quiet, even after China’s latest attempt to juice stock prices in the world’s second-largest economy. Stocks in Hong Kong got a brief boost from China’s ordering of pensions and mutual funds to invest more in domestic stocks, for example, but the Hang Seng index ended with a dip of 0.4%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8% despite a sharp drop for Fuji Media Holdings after Masahiro Nakai, a top TV host and former pop star, said he was retiring to take responsibility over sexual assault allegations that are part of a wave roiling Japan’s entertainment industry. The Fuji TV scandal triggered an avalanche of lost advertising at one of the networks where he worked.

In the cryptocurrency market, where prices have surged on hopes President Donald Trump will make Washington friendlier to the industry, bitcoin was sitting a bit below $106,000, according to CoinDesk. It had set a record above $109,000 on Monday.