NEW YORK (news agencies) — U.S. stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish on Wednesday after climbing in the morning but then running out of steam.
The S&P 500 finished an iota higher, less than 0.1%, after surrendering virtually all of its early gain of 0.9%. But that was just enough to break a four-day losing streak that had knocked the index off its all-time high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 188 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.
The stock market has generally been struggling following some weaker-than-expected reports on the economy, including a couple that showed U.S. households are getting more pessimistic about inflation and tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump. Some of the harshest drops hit Big Tech and other high-growth stocks, whose incredible momentum had earlier seemed unstoppable.
Super Micro Computer, one of the stocks that’s soared in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, lost nearly a quarter of its value over four days, for example. But it jumped 12.2% Wednesday after filing its annual report for its fiscal year that ended in June.
The company, which sells servers used in AI, had delayed filing its annual report and other required forms after its former accounting firm raised concerns about some of its financial reporting and governance. Super Micro then had to get extensions from Nasdaq to file the financial reports as it conducted a review and hired another public accounting firm.
Much of the market’s attention remained on Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI rush. It rose 3.7% ahead of its latest profit report, which arrived after trading ended for the day.
It was the first earnings report for the company and its CEO, Jensen Huang, since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, upended the AI industry by saying it developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most expensive chips. That called into question all the spending Wall Street assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centers.
Some Big Tech companies have since said they still plan to invest billions of dollars into AI, an encouraging signal for the industry.
NRG Energy jumped 10.6% Wednesday after announcing it’s joining with GE Vernova and a subsidiary of Kiewit on a venture to generate more electricity for generative AI data centers. GE Vernova rose 5.5%.
NRG also reported results for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. Most of the other companies in the S&P 500 have likewise been delivering better profits for the end of 2024 than analysts expected.
Off-price retailer TJX rose 1.8% after joining the parade. The company behind TJ Maxx and Marshalls additionally said it plans to increase its dividend 13% and announced a program to buy up to $2.5 billion of its stock.
Worries have been rising about whether U.S. shoppers may cut back on their spending given stubbornly high inflation and jitters about the economy’s prospects. But TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said his company has benefited from its off-price model and sees opportunities to grow over the long term.
General Motors revved up by 3.7% after the automaker announced a program to buy back up to $6 billion of its stock. It will also send more cash to its shareholders by increasing its dividend.
On the losing end of Wall Street, Advance Auto Parts tumbled 17.8% after the retailer said it made less profit from each $1 of revenue during the latest quarter than a year earlier, in part because of liquidation sales at stores it closed. Apple, meanwhile, was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after dropping 2.7%.
All told, the S&P 500 inched up by 0.81 to 5,956.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 188.04 points to 43,433.12, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 48.88 to 19,075.26.
In the bond market, Treasury yields fell again after dropping sharply in recent days on worries about the U.S. economy.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.24% from 4.30% late Tuesday. It had been nearing 4.80% just last month.
On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department will issue its third and final estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the final three months of 2024. The economy still appears to be in solid shape, and growth is continuing, though uncertainty is rising about the future. Another report on Friday will show how the gauge of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use has been behaving.
If reports were to show a stagnating economy and accelerating inflation, they could create a toxic mix that the Federal Reserve has few tools to fix.
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