Stock market today: Wall Street drifts higher in early trading
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Stock market today: Wall Street drifts higher in early trading
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting higher as Wall Street’s superstar, Nvidia, steams toward another record. The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in early trading Tuesday. The index is on track for a third straight gain following a five-day swoon that bridged the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 180 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.3%. Nvidia rose after its CEO unveiled a suite of new products and partnerships at a keynote address the night before at a major electronics conference. Shutterstock and Getty soared after announcing they were combining to become a $3.7 billion visual content company.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street inched modestly higher in premarket trading Tuesday amid a flurry of corporate news during a week of critical economic data being released by Washington.
Futures for the S&P 500 were up just 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrials Average rose about 0.2%.
Shares of Shutterstock and Getty Images both soared after they announced they were joining to become a $3.7 billion visual content company to provide customers with a broader array still imagery, video, music, 3D and other media.
Meta Platforms shares were largely unchanged after the owner of Facebook appointed three new directors to its board, including Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a key figure in the orbit of incoming President Donald Trump.
The social media company is also adding auto tycoon John Elkann and tech investor Charlie Songhurst, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post late Monday.
Shares in some notable Chinese companies fell after the U.S. Defense Department added dozens of them to a list of companies it says have ties to China’s military. The announcement caused some of the companies to protest and say they will seek to have the decision reversed.
Added to the list were gaming and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world’s biggest battery maker CATL. Tencent’s Hong Kong-traded shares fell 7.3% on Tuesday while CATL shares dropped almost 3%.
In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.8%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.4% and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.2%.
In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped nearly 2.0% to finish at 40,083.30. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3% to 8,285.10. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1% to 2,492.10.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.2% to 19,447.58 as shares in technology and games company Tencent plunged 7.3% after it was hit by U.S. sanctions.
The Shanghai Composite edged 0.7% higher to 3,229.64.
Investors are also watching for possible policy changes under incoming President Donald Trump, whose term is beginning soon, said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
“The convergence of these financial indicators points to a heightened alert among traders, who carefully calibrate their strategies for potential shifts in policy and economic directives that the new administration may bring,” he said.
Nvidia and other AI stocks have kept climbing recently, despite concern that their stock prices have already shot too high, too fast.
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will close their stock and options markets on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.
But in a potentially market-moving event later in the week, the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its last policy meeting, where it cut its main interest rate for a third straight time.
The monthly jobs report, along with an update on how U.S. consumers are feeling, are set for Friday. So far, the economy has remained remarkably resilient. The Fed began cutting interest rates in September after inflation pulled nearly all the way down to its 2% target.
Getting the last percentage point of improvement from inflation may prove more difficult. Worries are also rising that tariffs and other policies coming from President-elect Donald Trump could push inflation higher.
Delta Air Lines and Walgreens Boots Alliance report their latest financial results on Friday.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained 46 cents to $74.02 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 63 cents to $76.93 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 157.73 Japanese yen from 157.65 yen. The euro was largely unchanged at $1.0390.
