Stock market today: Wall Street closes mostly lower and ends a 6-week winning streak

[October 26, 2024]  By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA

U.S. stock indexes gave up an early gain and drifted to a mixed finish Friday, helping give the market its first losing week since early September.

The S&P 500 closed little changed after having been up 0.9% earlier in the day. The benchmark index ended the week 1% lower, ending a six-week winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% and also posted its first weekly loss after six straight gains. The Nasdaq composite eked out a 0.6% gain thanks to gains for several Big Tech stocks. It extended its winning streak to seven weeks.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow have been generally falling back from record highs set late last week. The market has been more cautious amid worries that stocks have become too expensive. Higher Treasury yields, which make stocks less appealing to investors, also added more pressure.

“There’s a degree of exhaustion following a very steady move higher,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “It’s just natural after that kind of move to have a period of sideways movement.”

Company earnings reports, which have been mostly solid, continued to be a key focus for investors. The latest round of corporate profit reports could give Wall Street a better sense of whether the high stock prices are justified.

Capital One Financial rose 5.2% after beating Wall Street’s third-quarter financial forecasts. Ugg footwear maker Deckers Outdoor climbed 10.6% after raising its financial forecast for the year.

Strong earnings drove gains for several other companies. Technology companies L3Harris Technologies rose 3.5% and Western Digital rose 4.7%.

More than a third of the companies in the S&P 500 index have reported their latest quarterly financial results. Most of the results have beat analysts' forecasts.

Outside of earnings, Spirit Airlines jumped 15.3% after the struggling budget airline said it will cut jobs and sell airplanes.

Capri Holdings, owner of the Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors luxury brands, lost almost half its value, 48.9%, after a judge halted a purchase of the company by Tapestry, which makes Coach handbags. Tapestry rose 13.5%.

Commuters leave a Wall St. subway station in New York's Financial District on Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

The ruling came six months after the FTC sued to block Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri.

McDonald's lost another 3% as the deadly outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to its Quarter Pounders expanded. The stock lost 7.6% this week as it posted its worst weekly loss in more than four years.

Treasury yields were broadly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.24% from 4.21% late Thursday. It’s well above its 4.08% level from late last week. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 4.10% from 4.09% late Thursday.

Yields have generally climbed following reports showing the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. Wall Street will have more updates next week on consumer confidence, jobs and inflation.

The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in two decades in an effort to tame inflation back to 2%, without sinking the economy into a recession. The economy has so far managed to escape severe damage from hot inflation and high interest rates.

Economists expect a key report on consumer spending late next week, called the PCE, to show that the rate of inflation has eased to 2%. The central bank started cutting interest rates in September and economists expect another cut at its meeting in November.

Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21%. Moscow is trying to combat growing inflation sparked by military spending after its invasion of Ukraine.

In Europe Germany’s DAX rose 0.1% and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2% lower. Stocks were mixed in Asia.

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