NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are rising Wednesday after a four-day losing streak knocked Wall Street off its all-time high and threw some of its brightest stars into reverse.
The S&P 500 was up 0.4% in afternoon trading and on track for its best day in nearly two weeks. The Nasdaq composite, which was the prior day’s biggest loser, jumped 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 45 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time.
The stock market had been struggling following some weaker-than-expected reports on the economy, including a couple that showed U.S. households are getting more pessimistic about inflation and tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump. 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 artificial-intelligence technology, lost nearly a quarter of its value over four days, for example. But it surged 17.9% 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 former accounting firm 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 conducted a review and hired another public accounting firm.
General Motors revved up by 4.6% for another one of the market's bigger gains 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.
Much of the market's attention remained on Nvidia, the chip company that's become the poster child of the AI rush. It rose 4.1% ahead of its latest profit report, which is due after trading ends for the day.
It will be the first earnings report for the company and its CEO, Jensen Huang, since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, 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.
Some Big Tech companies have since said they still plan to invest billions of dollars into AI, an encouraging signal for the industry.
NRG Energy jumped 11.1% Wednesday after announcing it's joining with GE Vernova and a subsidiary of Kiewit on a venture to generate more electricity to power generative AI data centers. GE Vernova rose 6.3%.
NRG also reported results for the latest quarter that topped analysts' expectations. Most of the other companies in the S&P 500 have likewise been delivering better profits for the end of 2024 than analysts expected.
Off-price retailer TJX rose 3.2% after joining the parade. The company behind TJ Maxx and Marshalls additionally 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 their 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.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held steadier after falling sharply in recent days on worries about the U.S. economy.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.28% 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 final three months of 2024. The economy still appears to be in solid shape, and growth is continuing at the moment, though uncertainty is growing about the future. Another report on Friday will show how the gauge of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use has been behaving.
If reports were to show a stagnating economy and accelerating inflation, they could create a toxic mix that the Federal Reserve has few tools to fix.
“Stagflation is the biggest risk looming over markets right now,” according to from Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.2%, 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 Warren Buffett's 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.
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