Stock Market Today: Wall Street Edges Back From Its Record

Economy

By Associated Press

Published 2 days ago on

February 19, 2025

American flag hang from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP/Peter Morgan)

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% Wednesday, while the Dow and Nasdaq each fell 0.3% in morning trading.
Zero-emissions automaker Nikola filed for Chapter 11, sinking 38.2%, while Tesla gained 2.5% as investors looked elsewhere.
Homebuilders broke ground on fewer houses than expected as high mortgage rates continued to squeeze affordability for lower-end buyers.

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NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes are edging lower on Wall Street Wednesday.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1%, a day after setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 122 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.

Celanese helped drag the market lower and tumbled 20% even though the chemical company reported profit for the end of 2024 that topped analysts’ expectations. CEO Scott Richardson warned that it saw “demand deterioration that gave no sign of easing” during the last three months of the year, and the company expects weakness to continue for such core markets as automotive, construction and paints.

The stock of zero-emissions vehicle maker Nikola plunged 38.2% after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move that often wipes out the holdings of stock investors. The company said it will try to sell off its assets and wind down its business.

The loss for Nikola could be a gain for rivals selling their own low- or zero-emission vehicles. Elon Musk’s Tesla rose 2.5% and was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.

Toll Brothers, meanwhile, fell 5.6% after the homebuilder reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. said this spring selling season has seen healthy demand so far for homes at the higher end of the price spectrum, but “affordability constraints” are hurting sales at the lower end.

Fewer US Houses Broke Ground

A separate report on Wednesday morning said homebuilders as a group broke ground on fewer U.S. houses last month than economists expected.

High mortgage rates are making it difficult for some potential homebuyers to afford a house, even though the Federal Reserve began cutting its main interest rate in September in order to make things easier for the economy.

Mortgage rates have followed the trend of longer-term Treasury yields, which have remained relatively high in part because the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid and because inflation hasn’t eased as much as hoped. Tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump, along with other policies that could put upward pressure on inflation, have also caused some sharp swings for yields in the bond market.

10-Year Treasury Yield Stayed Calm

The yield on the 10-year Treasury stayed relatively calm Wednesday and edged down to 4.54% from 4.55% late Tuesday. It was below 3.70% as recently as September and approaching 4.80% within the past few weeks.

Both the bond and the stock markets have increasingly been taking Trump’s tariffs in stride, after earlier showing much more trepidation. The hope on Wall Street is that Trump is using such threats merely as a tool to drive negotiations, and the ultimate effects won’t be as bad as they initially appeared.

Such a calm response, though, could make things worse if conditions don’t go as Wall Street expects, or if it emboldens Trump to make even more forceful actions.

Later on Wednesday, the Fed will release the minutes from its last policy meeting, when it left its benchmark interest rate alone in January after cutting it at its previous three meetings. The Fed has signaled it may make fewer cuts this year than earlier expected, in part because of worries that inflation will remain stubbornly above its 2% target.

Cutting rates can boost the economy and juice prices for investments, but they can also give inflation more fuel.

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5% after a report showed U.K. inflation accelerated to a 10-month high. That could put pressure on the Bank of England, which had been cutting interest rates to invigorate its tepid economy.

Indexes fell more than 1% in other European markets, including in France and Germany, after finishing mixed across Asia. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.7%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%.