NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks keep rolling higher, and indexes rose Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much artificial intelligence is boosting their results.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in early trading to add to what looks to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s on track to set an all-time high for the 56th time this year after coming off 10 gains in the last 11 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 312 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.6% to its own record.
Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short. CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, rose 10%.
Marvell Technology also jumped after delivering better results than expected, up 17.7%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.
They helped offset a 17% drop for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this quarter. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods.
Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable because of high interest rates brought by the Federal Reserve to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market.
This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A report on Wednesday morning may have offered a preview of it.
The report from ADP suggested employers in the private sector increased their hiring last month, but not by as much as economists expected. The report helped solidify traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks.
The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. It had appeared set to continue cutting interest rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. His return to the White House could lead to higher economic growth and inflation, which could alter the Fed’s plans.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.26% from 4.23% late Tuesday.
In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. Yoon accused pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. The martial law declaration was revoked about six hours later.
Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s biggest company, fell 0.9%.. The country’s financial regulator said it was prepared to deploy 10 trillion won ($7.07 billion) into a stock market stabilization fund at any time, the Yonhap news agency reported.
In France, political turmoil has also been rising, as the government faces a no-confidence vote Wednesday in parliament following a divisive budget debate. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.9%.
___
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
