Wall Street drifts in subdued trading around last week’s records

NEW YORK —  A mostly subdued day of trading Wednesday left stock indexes on Wall Street close to the all-time highs they set last week.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.2% after drifting between small gains and losses most of the day. About 65% of the stocks in the benchmark index fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished less than 0.1% higher, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%.

Several big stocks helped offset the broader decline in the S&P 500.

Amazon.com rose 3.9%, surpassing $2 trillion in market value for the first time. The rise in the e-commerce giant’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street.

Cheerios maker General Mills fell 4.6% after reporting that revenue for its most recent quarter fell more sharply than analysts expected. The company has been dealing with lower sales volumes as consumers grow more cautious and price-conscious amid stubborn inflation.

Chipotle eked out a 0.3% gain on the first day of trading after its 50-for-1 stock split. It was previously among the most expensive stocks in the S&P 500.

FedEx helped offset the losses with a gain of 15.5%. The package carrier reported results for its latest quarter that easily beat forecasts. Rivian soared 23.2% after Volkswagen said it would invest as much as $5 billion in the struggling maker of electric vehicles.

Several big technology companies gained ground. Apple rose 2% and Microsoft gained 0.3%. Their large values tend to heavily influence the direction of the market.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 8.60 points to 5,477.90. The Dow advanced 15.64 points to 39,127.80, and the Nasdaq rose 87.50 points to 17,805.16.

Wall Street’s big focus this week is on the government’s latest inflation report Friday. The personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation.

“The market is basically just sort of idling, like a race car that’s waiting for the green light,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “The light will turn Friday morning, when the PCE numbers come out.”

Wall Street expects the index to show that the rate of inflation eased to 2.6% in May, following a 2.7% reading in April.

The Fed is trying to tame inflation back to its 2% target, but the rate has been sticky. The PCE has been hovering just below 3% for months. The better-known consumer price index has been hovering around 3% throughout 2024, though it was as high as 9.1% in the middle of 2022.

The latest updates on inflation could influence the central bank’s decision on when to begin cutting interest rates, which remain at their highest level in more than 20 years.

“Noisy inflation data may be sufficient to keep policymakers cautious in their moves, but the global disinflationary process is well established,” Solita Marcelli and other analysts said in a report from UBS. “Easing price pressures and other economic considerations should encourage central banks to start or continue cutting rates.”

In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.32% from 4.25% late Tuesday. It’s been mostly falling since topping 4.70% in late April, which has relaxed the pressure on the stock market.

Investors are hoping that the Federal Reserve will soon begin cutting interest rates. Wall Street is betting on a rate cut at the central bank’s September meeting.

The economy has remained relatively strong, despite inflation and high borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Economic growth has been slowing, though, and consumers are seemingly more stressed and shifting spending to necessities. Wall Street is hoping the Fed can time its rate cuts so that it relieves pressure on the economy before it slows too much, but doesn’t also fall short of its goal of cooling inflation.

“It’s too early for the market to get any encouragement or disappointment from earnings, so the near-term focus will be on economic indicators that would imply that the Fed may cut interest rates as soon as September,” Stovall said.