NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 U.S. stocks closed higher after more big companies delivered profit reports that topped analysts鈥 expectations. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6%. Target jumped after topping profit expectations for the spring. But Macy鈥檚 dropped after it cut its forecast for sales this year due in part to more discriminating shoppers. Treasury yields eased a bit as investors wait for the week鈥檚 main event, which will arrive Friday. That鈥檚 when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech about interest rates.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday after more big companies delivered profit reports that topped analysts鈥 expectations.
The S&P 500 was 0.5% higher in afternoon trading, a day after , its longest of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 82 points, or 0.2%, as of 2:32 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.
Treasury yields were easing in the bond market as investors wait for , which will arrive Friday. That鈥檚 when will give a speech at an annual economic symposium. The hope is he鈥檒l offer clues about how deeply and quickly the Fed will begin cutting interest rates next month after it jacked them to a two-decade to .
In the meantime, more companies are joining a parade to deliver what looks to be the best growth in profit for S&P 500 companies since late 2021.
Target jumped 12.4% after the retailer said an important underlying measure of sales strength for the spring came in at the high end of its expectations, as . Its profit topped analysts鈥 estimates, and it raised its forecast for the full year.
TJX, the company behind TJ Maxx and Marshalls, rose 5.8% after it likewise reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. The retailer also raised its profit forecast for the full year and said it saw increased customer transactions at all of its divisions.
They helped offset an 11.6% drop for Macy鈥檚. The company reported better profit than analysts expected, but its . It also lowered its expected range for sales this year, due in part to 鈥渁 more discriminating consumer.鈥
Worries have been growing about whether and keep the . Inflation is slowing, but prices are still much higher than before the pandemic, and many U.S. households have burned through the savings they built up during that stay-at-home period.
Concerns have been particularly high for U.S. households at the lower end of the income spectrum. High interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve have made it more expensive to borrow money, compounding the difficulty.
That鈥檚 why the widespread expectation is for the Fed next month to lower its main interest rate for the first time since the COVID crash of 2020. The only question is how much and how quickly it will move.
Most Federal Reserve officials agreed last month that they would likely cut their benchmark interest rate at their next meeting in September as long as inflation continued to cool, according to .
The yield on the 10-year Treasury has been sinking since April on such expectations. It eased a bit further Wednesday, down to 3.76% from 3.81% late Tuesday.
A preliminary revision released by the U.S. government in the morning suggested the economy created 818,000 fewer jobs in the year through March than earlier reported. That's a big number and adds to evidence showing a cooling job market, but it was smaller than some had feared.
鈥淲e have long warned that the jobs numbers were unreliable and subject to dramatic revision,鈥 said Nancy Tengler, chief executive of Laffer Tengler Investments. 鈥淣o investment decisions should be made on these numbers.鈥
She's instead focusing on the longer term and said rising U.S. worker productivity is an encouraging signal for the economy.
On Wall Street, coal companies Arch Resources and Consol Energy both climbed after they said they were combining in an all-stock 鈥渕erger of equals.鈥 After merging, they plan to go by a new name, Core Natural Resources. Arch Resources added 0.2%, and Consol Energy gained 3%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. Japan鈥檚 Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%. It was a much more modest move than some of its huge swings in recent weeks, including its worst day since the .
Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama, Matt Ott and Alex Veiga contributed.
