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Wall Street Holds Steady 12/02 15:37 The U.S. stock market held steady on Tuesday as both bond yields and bitcoin stabilized. NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market held steady on Tuesday as both bond yields and bitcoin stabilized. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% following its first loss in six days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 185 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%. Boeing soared 10.1% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said the plane maker expects growth next year in an underlying measure of how much cash it produces. MongoDB also helped lead the market and jumped 22.2% after the database company delivered stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. United Natural Foods climbed 4.6% after reporting a stronger profit than expected. They helped offset a 6.8% drop for Signet Jewelers, which gave a forecast for revenue in the holiday shopping season that fell short of analysts' expectations. The jeweler said it's expecting "a measured consumer environment." Another potential warning about U.S. shoppers' strength came from the chief financial officer of Procter & Gamble, the giant behind Tide detergent and Ivory soap. Andre Schulten said the landscape for U.S. consumers is "volatile" at the moment, though still within the company's expectations. Procter & Gamble slipped 1.1%. The U.S. economy has been holding up overall, but that's masking sharp divisions beneath the surface. Lower-income households are struggling with inflation that's still higher than anyone would like. Richer households, meanwhile, are benefiting from a stock market that's within 1% of its all-time high set in late October. In the bond market, Treasury yields calmed following their jumps the day before. The 10-year yield edged down to 4.08% from 4.09% late Monday, while the two-year yield eased to 3.51% from 3.54%. Higher yields can drag prices lower for all kinds of investments, and those seen as the most expensive can take the biggest hit. Bitcoin, which tumbled below $85,000 on Monday as bond yields worldwide marched higher, pulled back above $91,000. That helped stocks of several crypto-related companies bounce back from sharp slides on Monday. Strategy climbed 5.8% and more than made up for Monday's loss. Coinbase Global gained 1.3%, and Robinhood Markets rose 2.2% to recover some of their drops from the day before. All told, the S&P 500 rose 16.74 points to 6,829.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 185.13 points to 47,474.46, and the Nasdaq composite gained 137.75 to 23,413.67. Monday's climb in Treasury yields came after the Bank of Japan hinted that it may raise interest rates there soon. But hopes are still high that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate when it meets in Washington next week. What comes after that for the Fed, though, is uncertain. The Fed has already cut its overnight interest rate twice this year in hopes of shoring up a slowing job market. But lower rates can fan inflation higher, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed's 2% target. Complicating things is the U.S. government's earlier shutdown, which delayed reports on the job market and other areas of the economy. Investment giant Vanguard said its data suggest the U.S. labor market "remains stable but is still soft compared with last year." Overall hiring numbers are slower on a month-to-month basis. But fewer workers are going after job openings because of weaker immigration and an uptick in retirements, according to Adam Schickling, a senior U.S. economist at Vanguard. That in turn means hiring doesn't need to be as strong as in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly across much of Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi was an outlier and jumped 1.9% for one of the world's bigger moves. Tech stocks helped lead the way, including rises of 2.6% for Samsung Electronics and 3.7% for chip company SK Hynix. |
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