NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are ticking higher and once again flirting with a record following mixed profit reports from big companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in early trading Thursday and was sitting just below its all-time high set late last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179 points, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%. McDonald’s rose after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. AppLovin and Cisco
Systems fell after their reports. Treasury yields edged lower in the bond market after a report said slightly more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than forecast.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street pointed toward gains before the opening bell Thursday as markets take in more corporate earnings reports ahead of the latest labor market data.
Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq all gained 0.3% before markets opened.
McDonald's shares are up slightly following its earnings release late Wednesday. The fast-food giant beat fourth-quarter revenue and profit projections, crediting the re-launch of its Extra Value Meal.
Shares of Rollins, the pest control company behind Orkin, tumbled 13% after it missed Wall Street's fourth-quarter sales and profit targets.
The U.S. will post weekly jobless claims Thursday, a stand-in for layoffs.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls in January, more than economists had forecast.
The blockbuster U.S. non-farm payrolls report “strengthens the case for higher U.S. Treasury yields and a rebound in the dollar over the coming months,” Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics wrote in a note.
The latest job report reflects that the U.S. labor market is stabilizing, he said, so the chance of another Fed rate cut over the next few months is “quite low.”
Also coming Thursday is the latest data on existing U.S. home sales.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE gained 0.2% by midday, while Germany’s DAX picked up 1.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.9%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 surpassed the 58,000 mark early in the session as trading resumed after a holiday. However, it gave up those gains, edging just 10 points lower to 57,639.84.
Japanese shares have rallied following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Sunday, as investors expect more effort to spur economic growth.
South Korea’s Kospi breached the 5,500 mark for the first time, driven by gains for technology-related stocks. It was up 3.1% at 5,522.27.
Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s biggest listed company, rose 6.4%. Chipmaker SK Hynix added 3.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 27,032.54. The Shanghai Composite index edged less than 0.1% higher to 4,134.02.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3% to 9,043.50.
In energy markets Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 25 cents to $64.38 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 37 cents to $69.03 per barrel.
Gold prices fell less than 1% while silver retreated 1.5%.
