NEW YORK — (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting near a record on Thursday as Wall Street’s recent rally loses some momentum.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in early trading after pulling to the edge of its all-time high Wednesday following its sixth gain in seven days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 78 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.
Movements were also mostly quiet in markets abroad, even after China's latest attempt to juice stock prices in the world's second-largest economy. While China's ordering of pensions and mutual funds to invest more in domestic stocks briefly boosted stocks in Hong Kong, for example, the Hang Seng index ended with a dip of 0.4%.
The relatively calm movements came as Treasury yields also held a bit steadier in the U.S. bond market. Big swings there have shaken the stock market recently, particularly when rising worries about inflation and the U.S. government's heavy debt have sent Treasury yields higher. But bond investors took the latest report on the U.S. economy in stride.
Even though it showed slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, "they were well within the modest range established in recent months," according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. "Employment continues to highlight US economic outperformance."
Traders don't expect the report to push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate at its upcoming meeting next week, according to data from CME Group. If they're correct, it would mark the first time the Fed hasn't lowered rates since it began doing so in September to ease pressure off the U.S. economy. Lower rates can goose prices for investments, but they can also give inflation more fuel.
Treasury yields rose, though they remain below their highs from earlier this month, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.64% from 4.61% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed’s action, held at 4.30%, where it was late Wednesday.
On Wall Street, video game maker Electronic Arts dropped 15% after it said it’s seeing a slowdown in revenue related to its soccer game, EA Sports FC25. It also said 50% fewer gamers played its Dragon Age game during the latest quarter than it expected, at roughly 1.5 million.
GE Aerospace flew 8.5% higher for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which split off from General Electric with two other companies last year, said orders for its airplane engines and services jumped 50% from a year earlier to $12.9 billion.
Some of the airlines that GE Aerospace serves didn’t do as well, though. American Airlines lost 7.4% even though it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it may report a bigger loss for the first three months of 2025 than analysts expected. American also gave a forecasted range for profit over the full year whose midpoint fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In stock markets abroad, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.8% despite a sharp drop for Fuji Media Holdings after Masahiro Nakai, a top TV host and former pop star, said Thursday he was retiring to take responsibility over sexual assault allegations that are part of a wave roiling Japan's entertainment industry. The Fuji TV scandal triggered an avalanche of lost advertising at one of the networks where he worked.
In the cryptocurrency market, where prices have surged on hopes President Donald Trump will make Washington friendlier to the industry, bitcoin was sitting a bit below $104,500, according to CoinDesk. It had set a record above $109,000 on Monday.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.