NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting higher Wednesday after a knocked Wall Street off and threw some of its brightest stars into reverse.
The S&P 500 was up 0.2% in early trading. The Nasdaq composite, which was the prior day’s biggest loser, rose 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged. It was down 14 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time.
The stock market had been on the economy, including a couple that showed about and pushed by . Some of the harshest drops hit Big Tech and other high-growth stocks, whose incredible momentum had earlier seemed unstoppable.
Super Micro Computer, one of the stocks that’s soared in the frenzy around technology, lost nearly a quarter of its value over the last four days, for example. But it surged 18.4% Wednesday after finally filing its annual report for its fiscal year that ended in June.
The company, which sells servers used in AI and other computing, had delayed filing its annual report and other required forms after its raised concerns about some of its financial reporting and governance. Super Micro then had to get extensions from Nasdaq to file the financial reports as it and hired another public accounting firm.
General Motors revved up by 5.6% after the automaker announced a program to buy back up to $6 billion of its stock. It also will send more cash to its shareholders by increasing its dividend.
Off-price retailer TJX rose 1.4% after reporting stronger profit and revenue its for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind TJ Maxx and Marshalls also said it plans to increase its dividend 13% and announced a program to buy up to $2.5 billion of its stock.
Worries have been rising about whether U.S. shoppers may cut back on thier spending given stubbornly high inflation and jitters about the economy’s prospects. But TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said his company has benefited from its off-price model and sees many opportunities to grow over the long term.
Much of market’s attention remains on , the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI rush. It rose 2.9% ahead of its latest profit report, which is due after trading ends for the day.
It will be the first earnings report , Jensen Huang, since a Chinese upstart, , upended the AI industry by saying it developed a large language model that can compete with big U.S. rivals without having to use the most expensive chips. That called into question all the spending Wall Street had assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also the ecosystem that’s built around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centers.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding steadier after falling sharply in recent days on worries about the U.S. economy.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.29% from 4.30% late Tuesday. It had been nearing 4.80% just last month.
On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department will issue its third and final estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the fourth quarter of 2024 later in the day. The economy still appears to be in , and at the moment.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 climbed 1%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.3%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was an outlier and slipped 0.2%. Big Japanese trading companies slipped following gains driven by billionaire disclosure in his annual letter to shareholders that he increased Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in those companies.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Stan Choe, The Associated Press
