Wall Street takes a pause as Tesla falls and Delta flies

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is taking a pause on Thursday as U.S. stocks and even the price of gold pull back from record highs following their torrid runs.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, coming off its latest all-time high and its eighth gain in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 278 points, or 0.4%, as of 2:19 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.4%.

Gold also fell following its stellar rally this year, while Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. They’re taking a moment following big runs driven in large part by expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to support the economy.

Financial markets have been so relentless, including a roughly 35% leap for the S&P 500 since a low in April, that worries are rising that stock prices may have shot too high and become too expensive. Concerns are particularly strong about the frenzy lifting stocks related to artificial-intelligence technology.

Dell Technologies sank 5.5% for one of the market’s bigger losses, but that only trimmed its surge since talking up its AI growth opportunities earlier in the week. It's still up 10% for the week so far.

Tesla was one of the heaviest weights on the market after falling 1.6%. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation of its “Full Self-Driving” system due to safety concerns.

Those losses helped offset a 5.2% ascent for Delta Air Lines, which reported a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected.

Delta also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ estimates. Its president, Glen Hauenstein, highlighted a broad-based acceleration in sales trends over the last six weeks, including for business travel domestically.

Such reports from companies are taking on more significance, offering windows into the strength of the economy. That’s because the U.S. government’s shutdown is delaying reports that would clearly show how the overall economy is doing. This is the second week where the U.S. government has not published its update on unemployment claims, for example, a report that usually guides Wall Street’s trading each Thursday.

PepsiCo rose 3.5% after it delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, saying momentum improved for its drinks business in North America. Delivering bigger profits is one of two ways that companies can make their stock prices look less expensive following their big rallies. The other is if their stock prices fall.

Akero Therapeutics leaped 16.5% after Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy, said it would buy the South San Francisco-based drug developer. The price tag could reach $5.2 billion if Akero’s lead product candidate wins federal regulatory approval.

MP Materials, a company that mines and processes rare earths in California, rose 3.6% after China announced curbs on its exports of the materials, which are critical for the making of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines.

Costco Wholesale climbed 2.2% after the retailer said its revenue rose 8% in September from a year earlier.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after Italy's Ferrari tumbled 15.4% following the release of financial forecasts that some analysts said were below their expectations.

Stocks in Shanghai leaped 1.3% after trading resumed there following a holiday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8% for another one of the world’s bigger moves. Technology giant SoftBank Group surged 11.4% after it announced a $5.4 billion deal to acquire the robotics unit of Swiss engineering firm ABB.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.15% from 4.13% late Wednesday.