NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records on Tuesday, as the price of gold topped $4,000 per ounce for the first time.
The S&P 500 ticked up by 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high and a seven-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 6 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
The bond market and stock indexes overseas were also making only relatively modest moves. Markets are taking a pause following a rush higher for most kinds of investments on hopes that the economy will remain resilient and that the Federal Reserve will continue to cut interest rates.
With the U.S. government stuck in another shutdown, several high-profile economic reports have been delayed, such as last week’s monthly update on the job market. Without those reports, which often move the market, some strategists say Wall Street could remain in its upward trend for a while.
IBM rose 2.4% after announcing a partnership that will integrate Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot into some of its software products.
A frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology is another one of the main reasons Wall Street has been hitting record after record, though that’s also raising worries that prices have potentially shot too high.
Much is riding on expectations that the AI investment boom will pay off, make the global economy more productive and drive more growth. Without that increased efficiency, inflation could push higher due to upward pressure coming from the mountains of debt that the U.S. and other governments worldwide are building.
That has optimists on Wall Street buying tech stocks and pessimists buying gold, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Group.
Investors have traditionally seen gold as offering protection from high inflation. Its price has soared more than 50% this year not only because of governments' huge debt loads but also because of political instability worldwide and expectations for lower interest rates from the Fed.
Investors looking to “hedge” themselves, meanwhile, may be buying both tech stocks and gold, Wizman wrote in a research report.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Constellation Brands climbed 3.5% after the beer and wine company reported results for the latest quarter that several analysts said were better than they expected. Sales of beer still dropped from a year earlier, though, as CEO Bill Newlands highlighted a “challenging socioeconomic environment that has dampened consumer demand.”
Intercontinental Exchange, the company behind the New York Stock Exchange, added 1.8% after saying it had agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket.
Polymarket offers prediction markets that allow customers to profit from making predictions on events across politics, financial markets and popular culture, such as who will become New York City’s next mayor or whether the U.S. government will announce that aliens exist this year.
In Toronto, shares of Trilogy Metals more than tripled after the White House announced late Monday that it’s taking a 10% equity stake in the Canadian company while allowing the Ambler Road mining project in Alaska to go forward.
President Donald Trump late Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals used in production of cars, electronics and other technologies. Trilogy is seeking to develop the Ambler site along with an Australian partner, and its stock soared 214.3%.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 edged up by 0.2% a day after slumping due to the latest political upheaval in Paris. France’s prime minister abruptly resigned on Monday.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.15% from 4.18% late Monday.
___
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.