New York – U.S. stocks are drifting Thursday as the market’s big burst following Donald Trump’s election continues to cool.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading and still near its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 41 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.
The Walt Disney Co. helped lead the market with a jump of 10.6% after the entertainment giant reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Disney CEO Robert Iger credited improved profits at its streaming businesses and strong box-office results for its movies, including “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” among other things.
ASML, a major supplier to the global chip industry, also gave some encouraging signals for technology stocks. The Dutch company said it expects global semiconductor sales to top $1 trillion by 2030, with the help of demand related to artificial-intelligence technology, and it stood by its long-term financial forecasts. ASML shares that trade in the United States rose 4.9%.
But a 1.3% drop for Cisco Systems was helping to keep indexes in check, even though the tech giant reported stronger profit than analysts expected for the latest quarter. Investors may have been looking for it to raise its financial forecasts more, analysts suggested.
Super Micro Computer, which has been one of the biggest winners of the AI boom, fell 13.4% for the worst loss in the S&P 500. It said on Wednesday that it doesn’t expect to file its quarterly financial statements with U.S. regulators on time.
The server maker’s stock has been struggling recently, particularly after Ernst & Young resigned as its public accounting firm. A special committee of the company’s board has since said that it’s found “no evidence of fraud or misconduct on the part of management or the Board of Directors.”
Tapestry shares jumped 11.4% after the luxury fashion company said it’s terminating its merger with Capri, another luxury brand owner. The companies agreed to a $8.5 billion deal in August 2023 to unite the makers of Coach and Michael Kors handbags, but the tie-up has faced numerous challenges, including a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal on antitrust grounds.
Capri shares fell 3.2%.
Stocks were also feeling the effects of swinging yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Prices paid at the U.S. wholesale level were 2.4% higher in October from a year earlier. That was an acceleration from September’s 1.9% inflation rate and a worse jump than economists expected.
A separate report, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. job market remains solid. Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that layoffs aren’t taking off.
Treasury yields initially jumped following the reports, as traders trimmed their expectations a bit for a coming cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve at its meeting next month. But yields later regressed, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.42% from 4.45% late Wednesday.
The Fed began cutting rates from their two-decade high in September to offer support for the job market, hoping to keep it humming after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%. Prior forecasts published by the Fed implied it could keep cutting rates through next year.
But Trump’s victory may have scrambled such plans. Economists say his preferences for lower tax rates, higher tariffs and less regulation could ultimately lead to higher U.S. government debt and inflation, along with faster economic growth.
While lower interest rates can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, they can also give inflation more fuel. And expectations for lower interest rates had been a major reason for the S&P 500’s big jump of more than 20% for the year so far, as well as for hopes that the U.S. economy can keep growing and avoid a long-predicted recession.
In stock markets abroad, European indexes were higher, including a 1.4% jump for Germany’s DAX. Asian markets were mixed, meanwhile. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2%, but South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1%.
In the crypto market, bitcoin was up roughly 1% at $90,916 after crossing above $93,000 as cryptocurrencies generally soared. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies, pledging to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
