U.S. stocks finish mixed in quiet day

S&P drops from all-time high; Dow gets closer to its record

NEW YORK — U.S. 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 percent, from its all-time high set a day before to 5,165.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.83, or 0.1 percent, to 39,043.32 and pulled within 90 points of its record set last month. The Nasdaq composite dipped 87.87, or 0.5 percent, 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 U.S. 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 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 start cutting rates in June because the longer-term trend for inflation seems to remain downward.

But the U.S. stock market recently has been looking more expensive than it has in 99 percent of its history by a measure that looks at prices versus longterm earnings for companies, according to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO.

The famed investor, who has a reputation for being cautious but who correctly predicted the popping of prior bubbles, says the longrun prospects for the broad U.S. 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 percent since hitting a bottom in 2022, Dollar Tree tumbled 14.2 percent after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

On the winning side of Wall Street was Williams-sonoma, which jumped 17.8 percent. The company, which also runs Pottery Barn and West

Elm stores, increased its dividend 26 percent and announced a new authorization to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock.