Stock market today: Wall Street drifts around its records in quiet trading

By STAN CHOE
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is quiet following its latest winning week, and U.S. stock indexes are drifting near their record heights Monday.

The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher in early trading, coming off its fourth straight week of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 48 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

Momentum is calming after all three indexes set records last week. They scorched higher on revived hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates this year because of a cooldown in inflation. More reports showing big U.S. companies are earning fatter profits than expected also boosted stock prices.

This upcoming week has few top-tier economic reports, like last week’s headliner that showed inflation may finally be heading back in the right direction following a discouraging start to the year. But some potentially market-moving reports on corporate profits are on the calendar.

Atop them all is Nvidia, whose rocket ride amid a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology has been a major reason for the S&P 500’s gains over the last year. It will report its latest quarterly results on Wednesday, and expectations are high. Analysts are forecasting its revenue more than tripled to nearly $24.59 billion from a year earlier.

Its stock was up 2.4% to bring its gain for the year so far above 91%.

Several retailers are also on the schedule, including Lowe’s on Tuesday, Target on Wednesday and Ross Stores on Thursday. They could offer more details on how well spending by U.S. households is holding up. Pressure has been rising on them amid still-high inflation, even if it’s not as bad as before, and cracks seem to be most visible among the lowest-income customers.

Target was down 0.8% after it said Monday it would cut prices on thousands of everyday essentials, like milk and diapers, in an acknowledgment of how customers are looking for relief from higher prices.

In the oil market, crude prices were slipping. They had briefly been higher earlier in the morning, following the death of Iran’s president in a helicopter crash. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude was down 0.7% at $79.05. Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 0.4% to $83.62 per barrel.

In the bond market, yields were ticking a bit higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.44% from 4.42% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, was holding steady at 4.83%.

The Fed on Wednesday will release the minutes from its latest meeting, where it again held its main interest rate at the highest level in more than two decades. The hope is that the Fed can manage the delicate balancing act of grinding down the economy through high interest rates by just enough to get inflation under control but not so much that it causes a painful recession.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were modestly higher across much of Asia and Europe.

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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.