NEW YORK (AP) — Resurgent technology stocks are leading Wall Street toward records Wednesday, even as the majority of U.S. stocks fall following another discouraging update on inflation.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was on track to top its all-time high set at the start of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 57 points, or 0.1%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was heading toward its own record after rising 1.2%.
Gains for tech stocks led the way, like Micron Technology’s 4.4% and On Semiconductor's 10%. They had stumbled the day before after momentum suddenly halted for stocks riding excitement around artificial-intelligence technology.
Nvidia, the chip company that was among the first faces of the AI boom, rose 2.6% and was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 because of its immense size. Its CEO, Jensen Huang, got an invitation to join President Donald Trump on his trip to China, where they could discuss allowing shipments of Nvidia AI chips to the world’s second-largest economy.
Earlier in the day, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. said that its profit for the 12 months through March zoomed by nearly five-fold from the previous year as its AI investments paid off. China's Alibaba Group said its AI and cloud growth accelerated in the latest quarter, and its stock that trades in the United States rose 8.2% even though its overall results fell short of analysts' expectations.
But the majority of stocks outside of the technology industry fell, as pressure builds on Wall Street.
“Corporate earnings and AI momentum are acting as the market’s primary shock absorbers, but the road is getting significantly rougher,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
A report on Wednesday showed that U.S. inflation at the wholesale level was worse last month than economists expected. That followed a report on Tuesday showing accelerating inflation at the U.S. consumer level.
Prices are rising for fuel, transportation and all kinds of other things because of tariffs, bad weather affecting food prices and other reasons. But atop all of them is the jump in oil prices created by the war with Iran, which has slowed the global flow of crude to customers worldwide.
On Wednesday, oil prices moved more modestly following big gains early in the week, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 2% to settle at $105.63.
But it remains well above its price of roughly $70 from before the war, and the International Energy Agency said Wednesday that oil inventories worldwide are depleting at a record pace. The resulting jump in oil prices has forced traders to give up most hopes for a cut to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve. If anything, a hike to rates seems like the next-best bet after no move in rates this year.
Lower rates would give the economy a boost by making mortgages and other loans cheaper. But they can also worsen inflation while they push upward on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.47% from 4.46% late Tuesday and is well above its 3.97% level from before the war.
The rise in yields helped send stocks of utilities and real-estate owners to some of the sharpest losses in the S&P 500. Such companies tend to pay relatively big dividends, which become less attractive to investors looking for income when bonds are paying more in interest.
American Electric Power fell 3% after announcing a $2.6 billion offering of its stock.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Birkenstock Holding dropped 13% after the British company said its results for the latest quarter were hurt by U.S. tariffs and other factors.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi led the way with a jump of 2.6%. It had sunk 2.3% the day before after a senior figure in the administration suggested the government may redistribute windfall AI profits from companies to citizens. That sapped momentum from AI stocks worldwide on Tuesday.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
