Stocks waver on Wall Street as earnings reports come in mixed

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wavering on Wall Street following mixed profit reports from companies. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% in early trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 54 points, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%. CrowdStrike sank despite topping analysts’ expectations for profit. It came into the day with a big gain for the year so far of 51%. American Eagle Outfitters rallied after the retailer reported a better profit than expected. Treasury yields fell in the bond market after a report suggested U.S. employers outside of the government may have cut more jobs in November than they added.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

U.S. markets ticked higher before the opening bell Wednesday as strong earnings reports trickled in from some big names.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 0.3%. Nasdaq futures gained 0.2%.

Dollar Tree rose almost 2% after the bargain chain easily topped Wall Street profit targets as same-store sales rose 4.2% over last year, boosted by a record-breaking Halloween season. The company also raised its full-year, per-share profit guidance.

Marvell Technologies jumped 8.7% after the chipmaker reported 37% increase in third quarter revenue on strong demand for its data center products. The company also said it was acquiring Celestial AI to scale up its artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Macy's tumbled nearly 6% despite posting a surprise third-quarter profit and its strongest comparable sales in more than three years. Even though the iconic retailer raised its sales guidance Wednesday, the projection was below last year’s annual sales totals and hints at a more cautious American consumer.

The U.S. economy has been holding up overall, but that’s masking sharp divisions beneath the surface. Lower-income households are struggling with higher prices while richer households are benefiting from a stock market that’s within 1% of its all-time high set in late October.

The Federal Reserve has cut its overnight interest rate twice this year, hoping to shore up a slowing job market. But lower rates can fan inflation, which has stubbornly remained above its 2% target.

The Fed will get the latest government inflation data Friday, when the Commerce Department issues its consumer spending report for September. That report, delayed by the government shutdown, comes days before next week's Fed meeting, where officials will decide whether to cut, raise or hold the central bank's benchmark lending rate steady.

Fed officials will not have last month's comprehensive jobs data, which is usually released the first Friday of every month. The release of the November employment situation report has been delayed until Nov. 16, also due to the government shutdown.

Elsewhere, at midday in Europe, Germany's DAX picked up 0.3%, while the CAC 40 in Paris ticked up 0.1%. Britain's FTSE 100 gave back a slight 0.1%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1% to 49,864.68 on big gains for technology shares like Tokyo Electron, which jumped 4.7%. Adventest, a maker of computer chip testing equipment, surged 5.3%.

Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank Group Corp. surged 6.4% following reports that its founder, Masayoshi Son, regretted having to sell shares in computer chip maker Nvidia to help pay for other investments. The company's share price sank after it announced last month that it had sold the shares for $5.8 billion.

South Korea's Kospi also got a lift from tech shares, gaining 1% to 4,036.30. Shares in Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company, rose 1.1%.

But Chinese markets declined following the release of data showing weaker factory activity.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 25,760.73, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.5% to 3,878.00.