Wall Street snaps out of three-day lull

Merck, Cintas, Trump Media among forces driving markets

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose to a record Wednesday after breaking out of their three-day lull.

The S&P 500 climbed 44.91 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,248.49. It was the first gain for the index since setting its last all-time high on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 477.75, or 1.2 percent, to 39,760.08, and the Nasdaq composite gained 83.82, or 0.5 percent, to 16,399.52. Both finished a bit shy of their own records.

Merck climbed 5 percent after federal regulators approved its treatment for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare disease where blood vessels in the lungs thicken and narrow.

Cintas, a provider of work uniforms and office supplies, was another force pushing the S&P 500 upward. It jumped 8.2 percent after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, meanwhile, continued their wild ride and rose another 14.2 percent. The company behind the money-losing Truth Social platform has zoomed well beyond what critics say is rational, as fans of former president Donald Trump keep pushing it higher.

Robinhood Markets climbed 3.7 percent after unveiling its first credit card, which is reserved for its subscription-paying Gold members, along with other new products.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Nvidia, which slumped to a second straight loss after screaming 91 percent higher for the year. It sank 2.5 percent, as some investors may have locked in profits before closing their books on the year’s first quarter.

Nvidia has been one of the biggest winners of Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial intelligence.

Gamestop tumbled 15 percent after delivering a profit for the latest quarter and a drop in revenue from the prior year. It’s the original meme stock, predating Trump Media by years, where its price has often moved more on the sentiment of smaller-pocketed investors than on traditional fundamentals like its profit and revenue.

In the bond market, Treasury yields slipped on a day with few economic reports to shake things up.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.19 percent from 4.23 percent late Tuesday.

Both the U.S. bond and stock markets will be closed for Good Friday.