NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are holding near their record heights on Tuesday as Wall Street takes a moment following a relentless rally.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 292 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower. All three indexes are coming off their latest all-time highs set the day before.
Nvidia weighed on the market after giving back some of its big gain from the day before, when it announced a partnership with OpenAI to build out data centers. Wall Street's most influential stock fell 2%.
But a 2.5% rise for Boeing helped support the market after the aerospace company said Uzbekistan Airways agreed to buy 14 of its Dreamliner airplanes and may add eight more to the order.
Kenvue climbed 4.3% and recovered much of its drop from Monday, when it had fallen on worries that President Donald Trump would say its Tylenol product may increase the risk of autism in children. Trump did warn pregnant women about taking Tylenol, but he did not seem to cite any significant new research to back it up. Kenvue has disputed any link between the drug and autism.
Gold, meanwhile, continued its record-breaking rally and topped $3,800 per ounce. It’s soared roughly 45% so far this year, even more than the U.S. stock market, in part on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to help the slowing U.S. job market. Worries about potentially high inflation because of White House influence on the Fed, along with mountains of debt for the U.S. and other governments, have also vaulted gold’s price higher.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak later in the afternoon and give his first public remarks since the Fed cut its main interest rate last week for the first time this year. At the time, he said many Fed officials had penciled in more cuts to rates through the end of this year and into next. But he also cautioned that conditions may change quickly.
The Fed is wary because lower rates can give inflation more fuel, and inflation has stubbornly remained above its 2% target. An update on Friday will show how much prices are rising for U.S. households based on the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, and economists expect it to show a slight acceleration for last month.
A preliminary report suggested activity at U.S. businesses is still growing, but at a slower pace as tariffs raise prices for them. Companies may be finding it difficult to pass those higher costs fully on to customers because of “weaker demand and stiff competition,” according to S&P Global.
The numbers suggest that inflation could moderate for U.S. households, but not by so much that it drops below the Fed's 2% target in the coming months, according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.13% from 4.15% late Monday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.
France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7% for two of the bigger moves. Japan’s stock market was closed for a national holiday.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.