Houston Chronicle

Wall Street action muted after record highs

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Another day of choppy trading on Wall Street left the major U.S. stock indexes nearly flat Thursday, even as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite hit all-time highs.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent after wobbling between small gains and losses up until the final minutes of trading. Technology stocks led the gainers after two relatively weak days, almost singlehand­edly outweighin­g losses by energy stocks, banks and companies that rely on consumer spending.

Wall Street continued to digest solid corporate earnings and updates on a decline of new virus cases. The latest government report on jobless claims, though, reaffirmed that employment remains a weak spot in the economy.

“Even though (claims) are a bit better, they’re still elevated, and this is a concern because we need to get people back to work,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors.

The S&P 500 rose 6.50 points to 3,916.38, eclipsing the index’s last record high set Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 7.10 points, or less than 0.1 percent, 31,430.70 a day after setting a new record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 53.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,025.77. Its previous all-time high was Tuesday.

Small company stocks, which have been strong gainers on hopes for an economic recovery by the second half of this year, notched gains. The Russell 2000 index added 2.88 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,285.32. The index is up 15.7 percent so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 4.3 percent.

The action has been mostly muted on Wall Street this week following a string of record highs for the major stock indexes. Investors are still looking for more government aid to help bolster the struggling economy. Democrats in Congress are working on a potential $1.9 trillion relief package that would include direct payments to people and more jobless aid.

The number of Americans seeking unemployme­nt benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000. The job market had shown tentative improvemen­t last summer but slowed through the fall and in the past two months. Nearly 10 million jobs still remain lost to the pandemic.

Companies continued reporting mostly solid earnings Thursto day, adding to a surprising­ly good earnings season. Kraft Heinz climbed 4.9 percent and Zillow Group jumped 17.8 percent after beating Wall Street’s fourth-quarter profit forecasts.

The pandemic and business shutdowns are still hurting many companies. Molson Coors fell 9.1 percent for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 after its profits fell short of expectatio­ns because business shutdowns in Europe hurt sales.

Elsewhere in the market, shares of Austin online dating service operator Bumble soared 63.5 percent on their first day of trading.

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