NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered on Wall Street Tuesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered around the record high it set a day earlier.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 18 points, or 0.1%. The Nasdaq rose 0.1% as of 10:34 a.m. Eastern.
Technology stocks were drifting. They have an outsized impact on the broader market because of their big values and tend to steer indexes, including the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
Semiconductor company Nvidia, with a total market value topping $3 trillion, reports its latest financial results on Wednesday. It rose 0.8%. Wall Street’s mania around artificial intelligence has helped propel a 157% gain for the stock this year.
The parent company of the Paramount movie studio sank 5.3% after Edgar Bronfman Jr., the former head of Warner Music Group, abandoned his bid for the company, clearing the way for it to be acquired by the media company Skydance.
Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.86% from 3.82% late Monday.
The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from 101.9 in July. The results were better than economists expected and could help bolster sentiment that consumers remain resilient, despite pressure from inflation.
Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity. That has been a strong area of the economy, along with the jobs market.
The key economic report for investors this week will come on Friday, when the government serves up its latest data on inflation with the PCE, or personal consumption and expenditures report, for July. It’s the preferred measure of inflation for the Federal Reserve, which has signaled that long-awaited interest rate cuts are coming.
Interest rates have been falling steadily over the past two years as the central bank raised its benchmark rate to its highest level in two decades. The economy has persevered through both inflation and higher borrowing rates, bringing the Fed closer to its goal of taming inflation without pushing the economy into a recession.
Traders expect the Fed to start cutting its interest rate at its next meeting in September, with up to a 1% reduction by the end of the year.
Markets in Europe were mostly higher. Germany’s DAX picked up 0.5% following a report that the country’s second-quarter gross domestic product fell by 0.1% from the previous quarter.
Markets in Asia were mixed.
China’s industrial profits jumped 4.1% in July compared to the previous year, with overall profits for the first seven months increasing 3.6%, bringing hopes to the market amid sluggish domestic demand, a housing downturn and employment worries.
But additional tariffs on China are clouding its manufacturing prospects. Canada announced a 100% tariff on the import of Chinese electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum on Monday, with the measures set to take effect on Oct. 1.
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AP Business Writers By Zimo Zhong and Matt Ott contributed.
