Wall Street drifts near its all-time high as most stock markets surge

The US stock market is drifting near its record levels on Wednesday following mixed reactions to profit reports from Macy’s, Marvell Technologies and other companies.

The US private sector shed 32,000 jobs in November, according to payroll firm ADP, compared to a small gain expected by analysts.

The jobs numbers reinforced concerns over the health of the US economy, which has struggled with dislocations and price rises caused by tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% in morning trading but remains within 1% of its all-time high set in late October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 85 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:15 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.

Marvell rose 6% after the supplier of semiconductor products delivered a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Matt Murphy credited strong demand for its data centre products, while also announcing a $3.25 billion purchase of Celestial AI to bolster its artificial-intelligence infrastructure business.

American Eagle Outfitters was another winner and rallied 15.4% after the retailer reported a better profit than expected. Its CEO, Jay Schottenstein, said it also saw a strong start to the holiday shopping season with an acceleration in demand across its brands during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Outside of earnings reports, Capricor Therapeutics surged 307% after the biotech company reported encouraging study results for its potential therapy for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

On the losing end of Wall Street were relatively few companies, including only one out of every four stocks in the S&P 500 index. But among that handful were some of the market’s most influential stocks, which kept indexes in check.

Microsoft fell 2.6% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Nvidia slipped just 0.6%, but because it’s the most valuable stock on Wall Street, it was another one of the heaviest weights dragging on the index.

Macy’s swung between losses and gains after reporting a profit for the latest quarter that was much better than the loss that analysts were expecting. Its stock may be feeling the pressure of high expectations after it came into the day with a rally of 34.1% for the year so far, more than double the S&P 500’s rise.

CrowdStrike fell 2.3% despite topping analysts’ expectations for profit. It too came into the day with a big gain for the year so far, raising the stakes, at 51%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report suggested US employers outside of the government may have cut more jobs in November than they added.

The data from ADP was much weaker than economists expected, but it has not had a perfect track record predicting what the more comprehensive jobs report from the US government will say each month.

Wednesday’s data may be discouraging for people looking for jobs, but it also keeps alive expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate next week. If the Fed does, that would be the third such cut this year in hopes of bolstering the slowing job market.

A report later in the morning on activity for US services business was more encouraging. It said growth was stronger last month than expected for businesses in the retail, finance, insurance and other industries.

Perhaps just as important was that the Institute for Supply Management’s survey also said prices were increasing at their slowest rate since April. That could give the Fed more leeway to cut interest rates because fears of high inflation are the main argument against cutting interest rates.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.06% from 4.09% late Tuesday.

Easing bond yields can boost prices for all kinds of investments, and bitcoin climbed again to top $92,000 following its scary downward run in recent weeks. It briefly plunged below $81,000 last month.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were close to flat in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1% on gains for technology stocks like Tokyo Electron, which jumped 4.7%. SoftBank Group Corp. leaped 6.4% following reports that its founder, Masayoshi Son, regretted having to sell shares in computer chipmaker Nvidia to help pay for other investments.

Chinese indexes sank following the release of data showing weaker factory activity. Stocks fell 1.3% in Hong Kong and 0.5% in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, gold prices steadied on Wednesday as traders awaited US economic indicators to gauge the Federal Reserve’s policy direction while silver pulled back from a record high.

Spot gold fell 0.1% to $4,203.58 an ounce by 1128 GMT after losing more than 1% in the previous session. US gold futures for February delivery were up 0.3% at $4,234.60.

“Attention is on key US data that could cement expectations for a metal-supportive December rate cut,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. Investors are awaiting US November ADP employment figures at 1315 GMT and the delayed September Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data on Friday.

Agencies