US stocks hit another record as Tesla and Nike rally
[July 03, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks ticked higher on Wednesday to hit another
all-time high.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and set a record for the third time in four days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down by 10 points, or less than
0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.
Tesla helped drive the market higher and rose 5% after saying it
delivered nearly 374,000 of its Model 3 and Model Y automobiles last
quarter. That was better than analysts expected, though the
electric-vehicle maker’s overall sales fell 13% from a year earlier.
Worries have been high that CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in politics is
turning off potential Tesla buyers.
Constellation Brands climbed 4.5% despite reporting a weaker profit for
the latest quarter than analysts expected. It pointed to slowing growth
for jobs in the construction industry and other “4000 calorie+” sectors,
which tends to hurt demand for its beer.
But the company selling Modelo beer and Robert Mondavi wine nevertheless
stuck with its financial forecasts for the full upcoming year.
They helped offset a 40.4% drop for Centene. The health care company
withdrew its forecasts for profit this year after seeing data that
suggests worse-than-expected sickness trends in many of the states where
it does business. It was the worst day for the stock since its debut in
2001.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.41 points to 6,227.42. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average slipped 10.52 to 44,484.42, and the Nasdaq composite
climbed 190.24 to 20,393.13.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed ahead of a highly
anticipated report on Thursday, which will show how many jobs U.S.
employers created and destroyed last month. The widespread expectation
is that they hired more people than they fired but that the pace of
hiring slowed from May.
A stunningly weak report released Wednesday morning raised worries that
Thursday’s report may fall short. The data from ADP suggested that U.S.
employers outside the government cut 33,000 jobs from their payrolls
last month, when economists were expecting to see growth of 115,000
jobs.
“Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a
reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,”
according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.
The ADP report does not have a perfect track record predicting what the
U.S. government’s more comprehensive jobs report will say each month.
That preserves hope that Thursday’s data could be more encouraging. But
a fear has been that uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs
could cause employers to freeze their hiring.
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Trader Niall Pawa, left, works with a colleague on the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard
Drew)
Many of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause,
and they’re scheduled to kick into effect in about a week. Unless Trump
reaches deals with other countries to lower the tariffs, they could hurt
the economy and worsen inflation.
Trump said on Wednesday that he reached a deal with Vietnam, where U.S.
products sold in the country will face zero tariffs and Vietnamese-made
goods will face a U.S. tariff of 20%. That helped companies that import
lots of things from Vietnam, including Nike, whose stock rose 4.1%.
Factories in Vietnam made half of all Nike brand footwear in its fiscal
year of 2024.
Other factors could also be dragging on the job market, such as the U.S.
government’s termination of protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans,
potentially exposing them to deportation. That alone could create a drag
on payrolls of 25,000 jobs, according to Goldman Sachs economist David
Mericle, whose forecast for Thursday’s report is weaker than many of his
peers.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.26% late Tuesday.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for
what the Federal Reserve will do with its overnight interest rate, held
steady at 3.78%.
An unexpected weakening of the job market could push the Fed to cut
interest rates in order to give the economy a boost. So far this year,
the Fed has said it would rather wait to see how Trump’s tariffs affect
the economy and inflation before cutting rates any further.
Trump, meanwhile, has angrily been calling for cuts to rates to happen
sooner.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed as the deadline approaches
for when Trump’s tariffs will come off their pause.
France’s CAC 40 rose 1%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6%. But
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6%, and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.5%.
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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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