S&P 500 almost makes 5,000 milestone

Wall Street takes advantage of bond market’s uneventful day

NEW YORK — Wall Street rose to the edge of another record-breaking milestone Wednesday as Ford Motor, Chipotle Mexican Grill and other big stocks climbed following their latest earnings reports.

The S&P 500 got within a fraction of a point of the 5,000 level before ending the day at 4,995.06. The index rose 40.83 points, or 0.8 percent, to set another all-time closing high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 156.00 points, or 0.4 percent, to 38,677.36, and the Nasdaq composite gained 147.65, or 0.9 percent, to 15,756.64.

A relatively calm day in the bond market helped keep things smooth for the stock market, despite some concerns about investors’ ability to digest a $42 billion auction of 10-year Treasurys by the U.S. government.

Underneath the surface, though, were still some very sharp moves. New York Community Bancorp went from an initial gain to a steep loss of 14 percent and back to a gain of 6.7 percent. It’s the latest dizzying swing for the bank, which is still down by more than half since rattling investors across the industry last week with a surprise loss.

The bank is struggling with challenges related to its acquisition of Signature Bank, which was one of the banks that collapsed in last year’s mini-crisis for the industry. But New York Community Bancorp is also feeling pain from a problem dogging all kinds of banks worldwide: weakness in commercial real estate.

Moody’s downgraded the bank’s credit rating to “junk” status from the lowest tier of investment-grade. Analysts also said they were concerned about the recent departures of risk and audit executives. In response, the bank said it had increased its deposits and gave details about how much cash it has on hand.

Stocks of other regional banks have been caught up in the drama, to a lesser degree, which has brought back memories of last year’s banking crisis. The KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking index swung between losses and gains through the day before ending 0.1 percent lower.

UBS analyst Brody Preston said New York Community Bancorp’s latest quarterly loss and dividend cut are due to problems related specifically to it and “are not necessarily a proverbial canary in the coal mine for other banks in the space.”

But attention is likely to remain on potential bank losses tied to commercial real estate, particularly after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted them as a concern recently.