NEW YORK (AP) — Most of the U.S. stock market is rising Tuesday following strong profit reports from several big companies, even as more swings for the artificial-intelligence industry keep Wall Street unsettled.
The S&P 500 added 0.3% after recovering a small initial loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 382 points, or 0.7%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, while the swings for AI stocks had the Nasdaq composite up a more modest 0.2%.
Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and several companies delivered results for the summer that were higher than analysts expected. Big expectations for growth are what have allowed the broad U.S. stock market to set records recently despite the worries about high inflation, higher interest rates and other challenges weighing on Wall Street.
Equifax rallied 10.6% for one of the market's biggest gains after the credit-reporting company reported a bigger profit for the summer than analysts expected, despite high mortgage rates slowing some parts of its business.
Hasbro climbed 4.2% after the toy company said its “Magic: The Gathering” game made more than $600 million during a quarter for the first time, even as shoppers broadly feel discouraged by high inflation. Hasbro's overall profit blew past analysts' expectations, and it raised its forecasts for revenue growth and an important measure of profitability this year.
Halliburton added 1.8% after reporting profit and revenue that were bigger than analysts expected. CEO Jeff Miller said that the work to restore production and rebuild inventories following “one of the largest energy disruptions in history” will drive demand for its olifield services.
In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude erased an early gain to dip 0.3% to $109.20. But it remains near its highest level since the war with Iran began in late February.
Another winner on Wall Street was Braze, a customer engagement platform. Its stock soared 50.9% to $45.34 after Salesforce said it would buy the company for $47.50 in cash for each share.
Salesforce fell 1.4%.
Keeping the overall market in check was General Motors, which sank 5.4% despite reporting a bigger profit than analysts expected. It also announced a program to send up to $20 billion to investors by buying back its stock.
The pressure is on companies to deliver bigger profits not only now, but also in the future. GM gave a forecasted range for profit over the full year of 2026 whose midpoint fell short of analysts’ expectations.
U.S. stock indexes trimmed their initial losses as AI stocks recovered much of their own.
They've been at the center of the market’s uneasiness recently, as euphoria around the technology’s boom gives way to worries that high interest rates in the bond market will slow the borrowing that’s allowed companies to buy so many AI chips. Last week was the U.S. stock market’s worst since June.
CoreWeave has been particularly shaky. It initially fell more than 6% at the start of Tuesday's trading, only to quickly trim its loss to 0.4%. The company, which has borrowed money to buy AI chips that it rents out to customers over the cloud, has even bigger swings recently. A day earlier, it careened between a gain of 7% in the morning and a loss of 3.5% in the afternoon following last week’s tumble of roughly 25%.
Tuesday's struggles for AI stocks began in Asia, where a South Korean AI company, Elice, confronted a rough welcome to the stock market. Its stock dropped 32% in its first day of trading in Seoul. South Korea's Kospi index fell 3.7% overall.
In other stock markets abroad, indexes fell for a second day in Europe following violent protests that could ultimately force governments on the continent to increase their spending to ease voters’ anger. That in turn could put more pressure on their bond markets, which are already strained because of worries about heavy debt loads and strained budgets.
Indexes fell 0.5% in Paris and 0.5% in London.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
