NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting near a record on Thursday amid a relatively quiet day on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading after pulling to the edge of its all-time high Wednesday following its sixth gain in seven days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 87 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was edging 0.3% lower.
Movements were also mostly quiet in markets abroad, 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%.
The relatively calm movements came as Treasury yields also held a bit steadier in the U.S. bond market. Big swings there have shaken the stock market recently, particularly when rising worries about inflation and the U.S. government’s heavy debt have sent Treasury yields higher. But bond investors took the latest report on the U.S. economy in stride.
It showed slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, but “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.
Treasury yields rose, though they remain below their highs from earlier this month, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.64% from 4.61% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed’s action, held at 4.30%, where it was late Wednesday.
On Wall Street, video game maker Electronic Arts dropped 17.5% 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.
GE Aerospace flew 6.3% 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.
