Wall Street hangs near its all-time high as calm continues to hold

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding near its records on Thursday following mixed profit reports from companies, as Dollar General and Salesforce climb but Kroger falls.

The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% and is just 0.5% below its all-time high, continuing a relatively calm run following weeks of sharp swings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 99 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually flat.

Dollar General rallied 6.4% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, as more customers shopped at its stores. It was also able to squeeze more profit out of each $1 in sales that it made.

Another lower-priced retailer, Five Below, rose 0.8% after blowing past analysts’ estimates for profit in the latest quarter, and it gave forecasts for sales and profit in the holiday shopping season that likewise topped Wall Street’s.

Outside of retailers, Salesforce added 0.7% after delivering a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue fell just short. CEO Marc Benioff extolled how his company is “uniquely positioned for this new era” of artificial-intelligence technology, even if worries continue that all the world’s spending on AI may not end up worth it.

Besides those worries about potential overinvestment in AI, concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates had sent U.S. stocks on sharp swings since setting its all-time high in late October.

After some back and forth, the general expectation on Wall Street is now that the Fed will indeed cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market. If it does, that would be the third such cut this year.

Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can boost the economy. The downside is that they can fuel inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target.

But Treasury yields rose on Thursday following another rise for Japanese government bonds. Expectations for a coming cut also took a very slight hit after reports suggested the U.S. job market may be a bit better than expected.

One report said that fewer U.S. workers filed for unemployment last week. The number was the lowest in more than three years.

A separate report said that the number of layoffs announced last month fell by more than half from October’s surge, according to outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The data on joblessness helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury up to 4.08% from 4.06% late Wednesday. While the move was modest, any increase in yields can discourage some buyers from buying stocks and other investments instead of bonds.

Among the stocks falling on Wall Street was Kroger, which dropped 3.8%. The grocer reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit beat forecasts. It also lowered the top end of its forecasted range for an important measure of revenue this year, while raising the bottom end by less.

Snowflake sank 8.6% despite topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Analysts at UBS said the company may be feeling pressure because excitement had grown so much after the AI data cloud company blew past expectations by so much in the quarter just before. Growth in product revenue also decelerated a bit.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.3%, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.2%.

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