Wall Street holds steady near record highs

NEW YORK

U.S. stocks held near their record highs on Tuesday after a quiet day of trading.

The S&P 500 added 8.65 points, or 0.2%, to close at 5,078.18 and is just off its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 96.82, or 0.2%, to 38,972.41, and the Nasdaq composite rose 59.05, or 0.4%, to 16,035.30.

Macy’s climbed 3.4% after reporting better results for the latest quarter than had been feared.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings steamed 19.8% higher for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting healthy customer demand. It also gave a forecast for earnings this upcoming year that was bigger than analysts’ own.

AutoZone revved 6.7% higher after reporting a stronger profit than expected. Much of its growth last quarter came from its stores in Mexico and Brazil.

Zoom Video Communications climbed after topping analysts’ forecasts for profit last quarter. It rose 8% to $68.17, although it is still well below its peak above $560 reached at the height of the pandemic. It also announced a program to buy back up to $1.5 billion of its stock, which would send cash directly to shareholders.

Those winners helped offset a 1.5% drop for Chevron, which warned that its pending takeover of Hess may be under threat. The energy companies are in discussions with Exxon Mobil and China National Offshore Oil Corp. about a joint operating agreement for a marine project off Guyana. If they can’t come to an acceptable resolution, Chevron said in a filing with U.S. securities regulators, the merger with Hess may not close.

Chevron was one of the top reasons for the Dow’s slide. Hess fell 3.1%.

Nvidia was another weight on the market, dipping 0.5% to take a bit of shine off its jaw-dropping run. Its stock is still up nearly 59% this year after soaring nearly 240% last year amid Wall Street’s frenzy over artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia’s stock packs extra weight on the S&P 500 because it is the third-largest stock on Wall Street by market value.