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Wall Street Drifts to Mixed Finish Tue 05/07 15:22
U.S. stocks held relatively steady as trading on Wall Street calmed
following some sharp recent swings.
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks held relatively steady as trading on Wall
Street calmed following some sharp recent swings. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%
Tuesday, its fourth straight gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%,
and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Kenvue, the company behind Band-Aids and
Tylenol, rose after topping analysts' forecasts for profit and revenue. The
Walt Disney Co. sank after reporting revenue that fell a bit shy of forecasts.
They're among the tail end of companies reporting their results for the first
three months of the year. Treasury yields eased in the bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady Tuesday as
trading on Wall Street calms following some sharp recent swings.
The major stock indexes are essentially flat in afternoon trading after
drifting between tiny gains and losses. The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1%. It's
coming off a strong three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
was up 6 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 2:41 p.m. Eastern time, and the
Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.
Kenvue, the company whose brands include Band-Aids and Tylenol, rose 5.8%
after topping analysts' forecasts for both profit and revenue in the latest
quarter.
The Walt Disney Co. sank 9.7% despite reporting stronger results for its
latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell a bit shy of forecasts,
and it expects its entertainment streaming business to soften in the current
quarter.
They're among the tail end of companies reporting their results for the
first three months of the year. The majority of companies has so far been
beating forecasts for earnings, but they're not getting as big a boost to their
stock prices afterward as they usually do, according to FactSet. Not only that,
companies that fall short of profit expectations have seen their stock prices
sink by more the following day than they have historically.
That could suggest investors are listening to critics who have been calling
the U.S. stock market broadly too expensive following its run to records this
year. For stock prices to climb further, either profits will need to grow more
dynamically or interest rates will need to fall.
The latter still looks like a possibility on Wall Street following some
events last week that traders found encouraging.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell strongly suggested the central bank is
still closer to cutting its main interest rate than hiking it, despite a string
of stubbornly high readings on inflation this year. A cooler-than-expected jobs
report on Friday, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. economy could pull off the
balancing act of staying solid enough to avoid a bad recession without being so
strong that it keeps inflation too high.
After charging higher through the start of this year as hopes dimmed for
cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, Treasury yields have been
regressing this month to offer some relief for the stock market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46% from 4.49% late Monday. The
two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, held
steady at 4.83%.
While yields have been declining over the last week, strategists at Wells
Fargo Investment Institute still expect long-term yields to remain high for a
while. That's in part because expectations are broadly for inflation to remain
higher than hopes for some time. Luis Alvarado, global fixed income strategist,
believes the 10-year yield will likely remain near its recent range.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Crocs jumped 5.9% after reporting better profit
and revenue than expected. It benefited from strong growth internationally.
International Flavors & Fragrances, which makes ingredients used in food and
perfume, gained 5.5% after reporting better profit and revenue than expected.
It also said it expects its revenue for the full year to come in at the higher
end of its forecasted range.
Lucid Group tumbled 15.4% after the electric-vehicle maker reported a worse
loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Builders FirstSource fell 17.6% despite topping forecasts for profit and
revenue. The supplier of building products said a weakening multi-family market
and higher mortgage rates were creating challenges, and its forecast for how
much cash it will generate this year came in below some analysts' expectations.
In stock markets abroad, indexes jumped 2.2% in Seoul and 1.6% in Tokyo but
were mixed in the rest of Asia. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.4% after the
central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged.
European stock indexes also rose.
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