U.S. stocks drifted around their record heights Thursday following the latest signals that the U.S. economy continues to hum.
- The Dow rose 161.35 points, or 0.4%, to 43,239.05.
- The S&P 500 fell 1 point, or less than 0.1%, to 5,841.47.
- The Nasdaq rose 6.53 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,373.61.
Nvidia and other companies in the chip industry were some of the market's strongest after global heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, the AP reports. TSMC credited strong demand related to smartphones and artificial intelligence, and its stock that trades in the US jumped 9.8%. It was a sharp turnaround from earlier in the week when a warning from a major Dutch supplier to the chip industry, ASML, sent stocks sinking across the industry. Nvidia's gain of 0.9% was Thursday's strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P 500. But a 1.4% slide for Google's parent company, Alphabet, and a 10.6% tumble for Elevance Health helped keep stock indexes in check.
One report showed US retailers made more in sales in September than in August, and underlying growth trends within the data were better than economists expected. The strength was "all the more impressive in the face of stretched household finances, particularly among lower-income shoppers, and pre-election jitters," said Gary Schlossberg of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. A separate report said fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, a signal that layoffs nationwide are relatively low and aren't damaging the job market. Such data bolster the hope that has sent US stocks to records: The economy could make a perfect escape from the worst inflation in generations, one that ends without a recession that many investors had seen as nearly inevitable. (More Wall Street stories.)
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