Stock market: Wall Street drifts to mixed close
NEW YORK — US stocks drifted to a mixed finish Wednesday, as a lull carried through financial markets worldwide.
The S&P 500 slipped 9.96 points, or 0.2%, from its alltime high set a day before to 5,165.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.83, or 0.1%, to 39,043.32 and pulled within 90 points of its record set last month. The Nasdaq composite dipped 87.87, or 0.5%, to 16,177.77.
The bond market was also relatively quiet, with Treasury yields ticking higher, while stock markets abroad were mixed after making mostly modest moves.
The biggest action may have been in the oil market, where a barrel of benchmark US crude climbed $2.16 to settle at $79.72. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $2.11 to $84.03 per barrel.
Oil prices have been on a general upswing so far this year, which has helped keep inflation a bit higher than economists expected. That higher inflation has in turn dashed Wall Street’s hopes that the Federal Reserve could start offering relief at its meeting next week by cutting interest rates.
But the expectation is still for the Fed to begin cutting rates in June because the longer-term trend for inflation seems to remain downward. The Fed’s main interest rate is at its highest level since 2001, and reductions would release pressure on the economy and financial system. Stocks have already rallied in part on expectations for such cuts.
Their nearly nonstop run since late October, though, has raised criticism that it was overdone. The US stock market was recently looking more expensive than it has in 99% of its history by a measure that looks at prices versus long-term earnings for companies, according to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO.
The famed investor, who has a reputation for being cautious but also correctly predicted the popping of prior bubbles, says the long-run prospects for the broad US market “look as poor as almost any other time in history.”
“The simple rule is you can’t get blood out of a stone,” he wrote in a recent report. “If you double the price of an asset, you halve its future return.”
On Wall Street, where the S&P 500 has jumped 44% since hitting a bottom in 2022, Dollar Tree tumbled 14.2% after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Traffic increased at its stores, but it said customers bought less at each purchase than they did a year ago. The company also said it will close about 600 of its Family Dollar stores.