By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
Wall Street notched more milestones Thursday after gains in technology stocks helped push the market to another all-time high.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, lifting the benchmark index to its second record high in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed an early slide and gained 0.2%, enough to move past its record high set last Friday.
The Nasdaq composite closed 0.5% higher, finishing just short of its all-time high set two weeks ago.
About 55% of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 closed lower, but gains in the technology and communication services sectors offset losses elsewhere in the market. Broadcom rose 2.8%, Amazon added 1.1% and Google parent Alphabet finished 2% higher.
“We’re seeing a continuation of a theme that has been in place really all year long, and that is communication services, information technology, really the areas that are surrounding this incredible capital expenditure cycle, have been the primary beneficiaries,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Asset Management.
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Heading into the final day of trading in August, the S&P 500 and Dow were on pace for their fourth straight monthly gain, while the Nasdaq was closing in on its fifth.
The market’s latest gains came as traders pored over a mixed batch of earnings reports from big U.S. companies and new reports on the job market and U.S. economy.
Tech giant Nvidia fell 0.8% a day after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated.
Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.
Shares in several retailers fell following their latest quarterly results.
Best Buy dropped 3.7% after the consumer electronics chain’s second-quarter snapshot was overshadowed by an outlook clouded due to the tariffs the U.S. is imposing on trading partners.
Despite also posting better-than-expected quarterly results, Urban Outfitters slid 10.7% after the retailer warned that it expects tariffs will increase pressure on its gross margins in the second half of the year.
Dick’s Sporting Goods fell 4.8% despite reporting second-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations.
Victoria’s Secret & Co. gave up an early gain and closed 0.5% lower.
Burlington Stores bucked the trend. The retail chain climbed 5.3% after its latest earnings topped analysts’ estimates.
Elsewhere in the market, Spam maker Hormel sank 13.1% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 companies after its earnings fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts and the company cut its outlook for the year.
Traders also had their eye on new government reports on the job market and economy.
The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, the latest sign that employers are holding onto their workers even as the economy has slowed.
The most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. gross domestic product —- the nation’s output of goods and services — grew at a 3.3% annual pace in the April-June quarter after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of this year due to the fallout from the Trump administration’s trade wars.
“The GDP print reinforces the fact that this continues to be an economy, domestically, that is continuing to show a great deal of resilience in terms of producing economic growth,” Northey said.
Still, the sluggishness in the job market is a key reason that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled last week that the central bank may cut its key interest rate at its meeting next month.
Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow, but they risk worsening inflation.
Traders are still betting the Fed will trim its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 85.3% chance that the central bank will cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.
Friday will bring another update on inflation: the U.S. personal consumption expenditures index. Economists expect it to show that inflation remained at about 2.6% in July, compared with a year ago. Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs.
Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.21% from 4.24% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve action, rose to 3.63% from 3.62%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.46 points to 6,501.86. The Dow added 71.67 points to 45,636.90, and the Nasdaq gained 115.02 points to close at 21,705.16.
European and Asian markets closed mixed.
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